Command decision

My lovely wife and I sailed into Cayo Costa State Park. http://www.floridastateparks.org/cayocosta/default.cfm

Two years ago we attempted to sail to the park from the south, but conditions deteriorated so we decided to seek shelter. Years earlier we were working our way through the better Florida parks, but never put the logistics together for Cayo Costa. It's on a island and can only be reached by boat.

This year we finally made it. It's a nice park, great beach, and has excellent anchorages. We opted to spend our first night at the park docks. Only one other boat spent the night. We had a nice get together around the fire.

Then things went south.

My lovely wife lost part of a tooth on a s'more. One thing about dental problems, they don't get better on their own. Fortunately, we had some dental wax in our med kit. That helped, but we needed a dentist.

The closest dentist was on Pine Island. My lovely wife was able to get an appointment at a clinic. We motored over and spent the night at the Pineland Marina. In the morning my lovely wife caught a cab to the dentist. X-rays were taken and the tooth has to go. However, they would not pull it. My wife has some medical history where only oral surgeons will do the work. Of course, there were none on the island.

The nearest were in Coral Castle and Fort Myers. My lovely wife was willing to sail all the way over there, have surgery, then continue our trip.

I love her spirit, but made a command decision not to put my lovely wife through all that. This trip is supposed to be about fun. I called my dad to come pick us up. My wife can get the work done and recover at his house. Once she's better we can figure out how we want to continue our trip.

Saturday I'm driving back down to Pine Island to pick up the boat. I'm not going to keep paying $41/day to park a sailboat.

This is a setback, but there's plenty of time for more adventures.

-Sixbears