Chapter 54

The stop in the Bahamas was after Andrea decided she needed new clothes. Jake was rapidly becoming an asset. He had no problem finding things to do to keep busy ... and he was now excellent crew.

They joined the Intracoastal Waterway at St. Augustine and sailed south heading for Miami. When they arrived in Miami, Andrea needed new clothes. She spent like a sailor. While this was going on, Jake and David were having the bottom scrapped and painted and the old zincs replaced with new. They were no longer in a hurry, Jake was warm now.

In Andie's shopping perambulations, she stopped in at a Florida Lottery outlet and bought a single Millionaire scratch off ticket. It went in her purse. Replete with new wardrobe and new deck-shoes she visited grocery stores and Wal-Mart, she replenished their stocks of white products ... new sheets, pillowcases and mosquito netting. She also bought feminine products. She returned to the boat ... handed David some money and sent the 'boys' off to resupply their clothing. While they were gone, she retrieved her impulse buy and scratched off.

The men returned with bags and boxes of new clothes. Andy was sitting in the salon with a rather stunned expression on her face.

"Andy?" asked David, "What's the matter?"

"Huh?" she startled, "We need to go to Tallahassee."

"Andie, Tallahassee is miles out of the way."

"David, You don't understand. I won."

"Won what?"

"A million dollars. I have to go to the lottery headquarters to collect."

David was stunned.

Jake asked, "A million bucks? Like a one with six zeros? A million smackers? How?"

"Florida voted in a State Lottery last January ... The Millionaire is their first big payoff ticket. I bought one on an impulse and won. I'm still having trouble believing it."

She held up the ticket, David looked. "Yup ... you won. How do you want to handle it?"

"I have a Blind Trust ... I won the Spanish lottery just after I turned 18 ... I set up a blind trust. A group of lawyers and accountants rigged it so I only have to pay tax on what I use. I'll deposit the winnings in the Trust account." She blushed. "I don't need the money ... I can't spend the interest on what I have. Maybe I should let one of you have it."

That shocked them. Fly traps

"No, really ... I don't need it ... I bought the ticket on impulse. After taxes it should be about half a million. The problem with the Florida Lottery is there's no instant payout option. It's a twenty year payout. Fifty thousand a year ... and that's truly a savings in taxes. With fifty thousand a year coming in the taxes are about 23 percent ... about what you would pay in withholding if you were working ... and Social Security would be included in that 23 percent. But someone is going to go. If it's not me then it's one of you."

David was busy at the chart table. "There's no a good way to sail there. Drive, bus, or fly, Jake?"

"Me? Why not you?"

"I don't need it either."

"Well, if I must..." Jake wondered if they'd wait.

"We'll wait ... no ... I have a better idea. We need a phone."

The maintenance group had a phone. It took some doing and Andrea's Credit card but they arranged a charter from Miami to Tallahassee and then a sea plane out to Cooper's Town on Great Abaco Island. The Knight would get to the pier eventually and pick him up.

"Make yourself known ... spend a little ... we'll ask. Someone will tell us. It's going to take another day here to finish up and put the Knight back in the water. If you get back here before we leave ... come here. I can't tell you where we'll be in the islands but it's close to Great Abaco."