Tues., April 21, 2009
Day 41
8:00 PM
6 miles up the New River in Fort Lauderdale
I am not sure when it first dawned on me that this was not going to be a good day. It started off well enough, awake at 6:00 AM, and en route by 6:30 AM. Maybe my first sign was when Jon and I had a little “miscommunication” about the times and distances of the bridge openings which resulted in us missing the first series of bridge openings and it set us back one hour. Maybe it was when we were waiting for the bridge to open, and the skies started to get the “it is going to rain buckets” look that I should have known. I should have at least recognized it when Crew, who has been a model dog, accidently got his leg caught in the rip cord of the off shore life boat and as he tried to run from it to get untangled and pulled the cord out about five feet. I do not know how long the cord is until the life boat explodes, but I interpreted the fact that it did not explode, a possible change in our luck. This did not last for long. I heard Jon deliver and expletive, followed by him informing me that we lost our ability to put the boat into reverse, and then it hit me – this was not going to be a good day. Loosing the ability to reverse our boat, which is the same as being able to stop it, when you have about 20 bridges to go through, rendered us unable to go any further. As we are on the intracoastal, with boat traffic, we decided to call Boat US for a tow. Just as we got out of the main drag, and we decided we needed to drop anchor (even though there were warnings of pipelines in the area, you guessed it – the skies opened wide with rain, thunder and lightening galore. About this same time, on land about dozen police cars with lights flashing, a SWAT van, and a large RV with police on emblazoned on the side of it arrived. After our adventure of being pulled over the Coast Guard in New York harbor this fall, my first thought was – please – do not let us have broken a pipe and we are in big trouble ! We still do not know what was going on, but they were not there for us.
We found a diesel mechanic in Fort Lauderdale, who was six miles up the New River, approximately 2 1/2 hours away. About an hour after our call for the tow boat, he arrived and we started the arduous process of being towed. I should mention that as we pulled the anchor up, the chain also brought about a half a ton of muddy muck from the bottom that smelled similar to a sewer. As we do not have an anchor wash, all of the muck came on board, and a good amount of the chain actually went back down into the chain locker before it dawned on me it was probably not a good idea. This part of the story becomes important later on. The only good thing about being towed was the bridges automatically open as a courtesy to tow boats so we were making fairly good time.
As we entered the New River, I was in awe at first. It was beautiful and it took us through downtown Fort Lauderdale, and under four bridges. I was actually quite enjoying the trip until the river became very narrow with boats on both sides, and depth finder was beeping. I think it was at this point it hit me, we actually have to get the boat back out of here !
We continued for another half hour, and finally reached our destination at about 12:30PM. We are right next to Interstate 95, very near the airport as we are directly under one of their flight paths – read: between the highway traffic and the planes - it is noisy ! Once we got the boat tied up, we were greeted by Doberman pincher named Diesel who had not stopped drooling on the left the side of our boat since he saw Crew. We were then informed that there is nothing within walking distance, and they would try to get on our boat today – but could not guarantee it. I still looked at the glass as half full, but the last straw was when Jon put the A/C on – and we were blasted by heat. It was at that moment- sitting on the boat, in the middle of nowhere, next to a highway, under a flight path, with no where to go, guarded by a Doberman Pincher, that I finally decided that this was a not a good day. What I did I do ? The same thing 99 % of the woman I know would do- I opened up a bag of chips, a container of onion dip, and began to improve my day.
Around 2:30 PM, Jon simultaneously finally fix the AC as the mechanic showed up. I just knew my chips and dip had done their magic. Crew and I headed up to the bridge to keep out of the way of the mechanic and enjoyed a toasty 95 degrees warming experience. Shortly after the mechanic left, not sure what was wrong, but he was going to make some calls. I decided to relocate with Crew down in our bunk because at least there was some semblance of AC. As I entered the bunk, to my horror, I saw that the door of the anchor locker, which is as the foot of our bed, had popped open, and all that chain covered with all of that sewer mud, had spilled out on to the bed. I now realized that my dip and chips were not working, and this still was a bad day. I recruited Jon to pull the chain up out of the locker from the deck, and I started to clean off the bed and the locker. Jon’s plan was to wash the chain and deck and I would clean the locker. I went to the galley sink to wet more towels, when I noticed a black blob on the counter. Not sure exactly what it was I wiped at it with my hand and was met by a 1000 scattering sugar ants. I quickly went to turn the water on to wet a rag to capture them all, when to my horror no water came out. I quickly doused the ants with Dawn detergent and called out to Jon. Jon was also calling to me to shut the kitchen faucet water off because he was trying to hose the deck – it was then we realized we had no water. We had recently filled up with water and could not believe we had gone through 150 gallons of water. We had had a water leak we thought was fixed, but immediately became concerned again. Jon checked check the tanks and sure enough bone dry.
The mechanic then returned around 3:30 PM and told us there were two possibilities that may be causing our problem, and that if it was not one of those two things, we were going to have to have the transmission rebuilt – ugghh….. He came back around 5:30 and removed the transmission and the plan is to bring it to a transmission guy tomorrow.
So, since the chips and dip did not work, we switched to vodka. It is now 8:30 PM, after finally finding a Pizza Hut to deliver, ( I am just too tired to tell the story), Crew is still stuck on the boat due to the Doberman, and we have nothing to do, but I remain hopeful that maybe tomorrow we will have good news, and be able to head out of here in a day or two. I am sure tomorrow will be at least a better day than today…..
Day 41
8:00 PM
6 miles up the New River in Fort Lauderdale
I am not sure when it first dawned on me that this was not going to be a good day. It started off well enough, awake at 6:00 AM, and en route by 6:30 AM. Maybe my first sign was when Jon and I had a little “miscommunication” about the times and distances of the bridge openings which resulted in us missing the first series of bridge openings and it set us back one hour. Maybe it was when we were waiting for the bridge to open, and the skies started to get the “it is going to rain buckets” look that I should have known. I should have at least recognized it when Crew, who has been a model dog, accidently got his leg caught in the rip cord of the off shore life boat and as he tried to run from it to get untangled and pulled the cord out about five feet. I do not know how long the cord is until the life boat explodes, but I interpreted the fact that it did not explode, a possible change in our luck. This did not last for long. I heard Jon deliver and expletive, followed by him informing me that we lost our ability to put the boat into reverse, and then it hit me – this was not going to be a good day. Loosing the ability to reverse our boat, which is the same as being able to stop it, when you have about 20 bridges to go through, rendered us unable to go any further. As we are on the intracoastal, with boat traffic, we decided to call Boat US for a tow. Just as we got out of the main drag, and we decided we needed to drop anchor (even though there were warnings of pipelines in the area, you guessed it – the skies opened wide with rain, thunder and lightening galore. About this same time, on land about dozen police cars with lights flashing, a SWAT van, and a large RV with police on emblazoned on the side of it arrived. After our adventure of being pulled over the Coast Guard in New York harbor this fall, my first thought was – please – do not let us have broken a pipe and we are in big trouble ! We still do not know what was going on, but they were not there for us.
We found a diesel mechanic in Fort Lauderdale, who was six miles up the New River, approximately 2 1/2 hours away. About an hour after our call for the tow boat, he arrived and we started the arduous process of being towed. I should mention that as we pulled the anchor up, the chain also brought about a half a ton of muddy muck from the bottom that smelled similar to a sewer. As we do not have an anchor wash, all of the muck came on board, and a good amount of the chain actually went back down into the chain locker before it dawned on me it was probably not a good idea. This part of the story becomes important later on. The only good thing about being towed was the bridges automatically open as a courtesy to tow boats so we were making fairly good time.
As we entered the New River, I was in awe at first. It was beautiful and it took us through downtown Fort Lauderdale, and under four bridges. I was actually quite enjoying the trip until the river became very narrow with boats on both sides, and depth finder was beeping. I think it was at this point it hit me, we actually have to get the boat back out of here !
We continued for another half hour, and finally reached our destination at about 12:30PM. We are right next to Interstate 95, very near the airport as we are directly under one of their flight paths – read: between the highway traffic and the planes - it is noisy ! Once we got the boat tied up, we were greeted by Doberman pincher named Diesel who had not stopped drooling on the left the side of our boat since he saw Crew. We were then informed that there is nothing within walking distance, and they would try to get on our boat today – but could not guarantee it. I still looked at the glass as half full, but the last straw was when Jon put the A/C on – and we were blasted by heat. It was at that moment- sitting on the boat, in the middle of nowhere, next to a highway, under a flight path, with no where to go, guarded by a Doberman Pincher, that I finally decided that this was a not a good day. What I did I do ? The same thing 99 % of the woman I know would do- I opened up a bag of chips, a container of onion dip, and began to improve my day.
Around 2:30 PM, Jon simultaneously finally fix the AC as the mechanic showed up. I just knew my chips and dip had done their magic. Crew and I headed up to the bridge to keep out of the way of the mechanic and enjoyed a toasty 95 degrees warming experience. Shortly after the mechanic left, not sure what was wrong, but he was going to make some calls. I decided to relocate with Crew down in our bunk because at least there was some semblance of AC. As I entered the bunk, to my horror, I saw that the door of the anchor locker, which is as the foot of our bed, had popped open, and all that chain covered with all of that sewer mud, had spilled out on to the bed. I now realized that my dip and chips were not working, and this still was a bad day. I recruited Jon to pull the chain up out of the locker from the deck, and I started to clean off the bed and the locker. Jon’s plan was to wash the chain and deck and I would clean the locker. I went to the galley sink to wet more towels, when I noticed a black blob on the counter. Not sure exactly what it was I wiped at it with my hand and was met by a 1000 scattering sugar ants. I quickly went to turn the water on to wet a rag to capture them all, when to my horror no water came out. I quickly doused the ants with Dawn detergent and called out to Jon. Jon was also calling to me to shut the kitchen faucet water off because he was trying to hose the deck – it was then we realized we had no water. We had recently filled up with water and could not believe we had gone through 150 gallons of water. We had had a water leak we thought was fixed, but immediately became concerned again. Jon checked check the tanks and sure enough bone dry.
The mechanic then returned around 3:30 PM and told us there were two possibilities that may be causing our problem, and that if it was not one of those two things, we were going to have to have the transmission rebuilt – ugghh….. He came back around 5:30 and removed the transmission and the plan is to bring it to a transmission guy tomorrow.
So, since the chips and dip did not work, we switched to vodka. It is now 8:30 PM, after finally finding a Pizza Hut to deliver, ( I am just too tired to tell the story), Crew is still stuck on the boat due to the Doberman, and we have nothing to do, but I remain hopeful that maybe tomorrow we will have good news, and be able to head out of here in a day or two. I am sure tomorrow will be at least a better day than today…..
Crew reducing his stress
North of Miami - a peaceful start to the dreadful day
Activity on land including the SWAT team while we waited for our tow
After the downpour waiting for our tow
At last, under tow
Heading up the New River in Ft. Lauderdale
Some of the interesting sites we saw on our way up the river
A cannon to rival ours - some of Palm Coast neighbors would really love this one !
A twist and a turn
Almost there - the middle of nowhere...
Lunch break
Crew being greeted by the yard's big doberman
Wed. April 22, 2009
Day 42 – Earth Day
11:00 PM – Palm Coast
Well, Crew clock got me up at 6:30 AM, only to enjoy the morning symphony of jet after jet taking off…..
The plan was to wait to hear if the transmission would be an easy fix, or need to be rebuilt. We spent the day cleaning – Jon outside – Susan inside the boat. Around 3:00 PM. We got the word – the transmission needed to rebuilt – that was the news we did not want to get. When we were told how much it would cost, the guy did not think I was funny when I told him to just keep the boat !
We decided to rent a car and drive home. We spent the next two hours scurrying around and getting ready and finally hit the road at 5:00 PM – yes prime traffic hour. Jon did his best Mario Andretti driving and including one pit stop, we arrived safely home in Palm Coast at 9:03 PM.
We should know this Friday when the boat will be ready. We will then drive back to Fort Lauderdale, get back on Sundance and hope we find our way down the six miles on the New River, then start our final leg back to Palm Coast.
It is nice to be back home, even though Crew was not happy evidenced by him promptly peeing on the living room floor – ugghh – here we go again.
Day 42 – Earth Day
11:00 PM – Palm Coast
Well, Crew clock got me up at 6:30 AM, only to enjoy the morning symphony of jet after jet taking off…..
The plan was to wait to hear if the transmission would be an easy fix, or need to be rebuilt. We spent the day cleaning – Jon outside – Susan inside the boat. Around 3:00 PM. We got the word – the transmission needed to rebuilt – that was the news we did not want to get. When we were told how much it would cost, the guy did not think I was funny when I told him to just keep the boat !
We decided to rent a car and drive home. We spent the next two hours scurrying around and getting ready and finally hit the road at 5:00 PM – yes prime traffic hour. Jon did his best Mario Andretti driving and including one pit stop, we arrived safely home in Palm Coast at 9:03 PM.
We should know this Friday when the boat will be ready. We will then drive back to Fort Lauderdale, get back on Sundance and hope we find our way down the six miles on the New River, then start our final leg back to Palm Coast.
It is nice to be back home, even though Crew was not happy evidenced by him promptly peeing on the living room floor – ugghh – here we go again.
Our new home - nowhere to go , nothing to do
For entertainment , I watched this flower float by
We are right in the Ft Lauderdale flight pattern
Amazing sunset driving back to Palm Coast
