I got back to Ft. Pierce Wednesday night after two long days of driving. Spent one night near Atlanta and then drove all the way home to the boat. Yesterday I did laundry, got the boat ready to haul and packed. (you CANT live on a boat set up on blocks in the yard at 103 degrees. so I packed to leave the boat. My dear friends Ken and Kee Kee offered to put up with me at their mansion for a few days.) Today after coffee I started to untie all my spider web of hurricane protection lines. It took a few hours to get the boat all untied and ready to cast off. AFTER my embarrassing arrival and body slamming the poles upon attempting to dock, I made a great effort to depart my slip at slack tide. Turns out it was low tide. This complicated things because I could not get into the other marina at low tide. Cracker Boy Boat Works sits up Taylor Creek and it gets shallow at low tide. Too shallow for my 5'5" draft. Ken Reed came to assist me with the move and after an 'uneventful' departure from the City Marina we motored out past the bridge and a quarter mile from Cracker Boys and did circles in the wide open harbor for 2 hrs. (Cracker Boys gave me a haul out time of 330p. we left City Marina about 1p)
Shawn operates the lift via his wireless remote. (he did not let me try it)
Short version, we arrived early / crashed / hauled / blocked the boat / the end.
Now i'm at an Applebees near the Reed home relaxing and breathing deep. It was a tough day for the Capitan of Prodigal.
-skip
____________________________________
LONG VERSION:
My boat wont back up 'very well' (read: nightmare. it will go whatever direction you dont want to go. it does not EVER go straight) To get into the slip for haul out at Cracker Boys you have to back into it. So my plan was to ram the dock, tie off and manually maneuver the back end into the slip. It worked like that - sorta. Except after ramming the dock and having the 3 guys grab ropes I tied to Prodigal, we had to 'motor' forward up to the bow of the fishing sport boat tied (too close) to the travel lift. Ken climbed out onto my bow sprit and pushed off the other boat to turn our nose and allow me to back in. We had to get forward enough so our back end was even with the slip entrance, then push our nose out far enough to back in. Easy Peasy! Just add three guys on shore pulling on ropes to help guide us in like a huge Macy's Day balloon in the parade. DONE.
After that it was almost done. Immediately upon lifting from the water, the crew does a high pressure spray wash. then they drive the lift over to my spot and lower Prodigal down onto big wooden squares. Block it with stands so she is supported and last drive the lift away. When I left the Williams Marine folks were starting to scrape the hull. I promised to meet them again at 8am for a full day of - Hot as Hades work in the yard on Saturday.
Thank goodness it's air conditioned in Ken's house! -skip
