Tuesday’s Child, a boat a couple called home, sank after Ian

A Vietnam veteran and his wife are putting the pieces of their lives back together after Hurricane Ian. They lived full-time on a boat docked at the Legacy Harbour Marina in Fort Myers, which Ian destroyed.

People who live on their boats no longer have a place to call home.

In the boating world, nobody wants to be a “cruiser living on dirt,” also known as a CLOD.

But, after Hurricane Ian, dirt is where Edward Grygent is stuck.

“Tuesday’s Child was a 48-foot motor yacht,” Greygent said. “Jefferson. It’s called a sundeck motor yacht. The boat was designed as a coastal cruiser. We did that. We ran it up and down the East Coast on the ICW, visiting friends and family along the way.”

Since 2005, Grygent and his wife Benia have made Tuesday’s Child their home.

“We sold our house in New Jersey. Gave away a lot of stuff to our kids. Gave the rest to charities and whoever wanted it, and put the rest in garbage bags and gave the rest to the garbage guy,” Grygent said.

While they evacuated to the east coast the Tuesday before the storm, Tuesday’s Child stayed docked at Legacy Harbor Marina, where nearly every boat was lost during the storm.

“We were unlucky enough to see it going because we had friends in the high rises who were taking video and still pictures to show us what was going on as it was going on,” Grygent said.

Their home sank to the bottom of the Caloosahatchee River and forced the Grygents to call a hotel in Fort Myers their home until the end of the month. But, looking past the end of the month, Grygent said he doesn’t know where they will go. He says all they have left is perspective, and they are trying to keep it in mind.

“Our perspective is, first and foremost, God still loves us. We’re alive, anyway. That’s number one,” Grygent said.

And, eventually, they will set sail again.

Legacy Harbour Marina suffered extensive damage from the storm and will remain closed until further notice.