Back in the Saddle Again

Welcome back.  We are cruising again.

On Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Diana, Kodi and the writer (Lester) left  Chicago and drove 900 miles to Branford, Connecticut in our one-way Enterprise rental.  Owing to good weather and my high energy, we drove 10 hours on Wednesday and then another 6+ hours on Thursday arriving at the Brewer Bruce and Johnson Marina at 3:00 PM. 

To appreciate the rest of this story you have to have to have a little background.  Please note that I will go into further detail in the two earlier "place holder" posts.

On October 10, 2011, 1 year and 7 days into our cruise, Diana had an accident that caused us to put our cruise on hold.  The accident involved a collision with a 100 doberman (Wolfie) and Diana's right leg.  Two surgeries (one which was 6 and a half hours in duration), two weeks at Yale New Haven Hospital, three weeks at the Apple Rehab Center in Mystic, CT, three weeks at Jerry (my oldest friend) and Cathy Swerdlick's home in Westerly, RI, four and a half months in Sarasota, FL (December 10 to April 15, 2012) and, finally, Diana had miraculously recovered 98%.  On April 15 we returned to our home in Chicago for a lovely spring and early summer.

On the date of the accident (October 10), while Diana was being moved by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital, I moved the boat from Mystic to Branford where it sat in the water until the end of November.

During that time I completely unloaded the boat, placing its contents in 33 boxes that were then put in a R&L Carriers crate for storage.  Concurrently, Guided Discovery was put up for sale (which did not occur).

On or about December 1, Brewer Bruce and Johnson put to boat on the hard, winterized it and shrink wrapped it for its winter OUTDOOR storage.  IMPORTANT: Guide Discovery has alway been stored indoors in a heated wharehouse.  Outdoor was a big change.  Fortunately, it was a mild New England winter.

On Wednesday, Brewer put the boat back in the water and undid all the winterizing along with finishing a very long list of maintenance services to put to the boat back into top mechanical condition.  Notice I underlined the word "mechanical."  The boat was badly in need of cosmetic maintenance in the form of waxing the hull and topsides, detailing the helm and cockpit and, finally, polishing the isenglass camper canvas window panels.

Unfortunately, my friends at Brewer wanted to charge an absolutley outrageous $2,300 plus materials to wax the hull and topsides ONLY.  Brewer would not budge from the $2,300.  I've never paid more than $1,000 for the waxing and complete detailing outlined in the above paragraph.  As I like to say, you can cut a fat hog but first you have to catch it.  I told Brewer thanks but no thanks.  Hence, we were taking possession of a very dirty boat.

After finishing our dinner at the marina's very nice restaurant at 4:30 PM, I took a chance considering the late hour and contracted with the service manager for 2 hours labor to help unload the crate which had been shipped to the marina the previous day.  Luckily, the manager had a young man (Tyler) available and we went to work.  Tyler unloaded the 33 boxes from the crate and helped me put away the heavy stuff.  Tyler finished his part at 6:30 PM.  From 6:30 until 2:00 AM I worked like a mad-man (at least according to Diana - who was clearly less than 100% pleased with my enthusiasm for getting in done "right now").  Diana went to the supermarket and completely resupplied the boat.

Friday turned into fix the "dingy" day.  The dingy (a Caribe DL11 with a 30 HP Tohatsu - total rig 800 pounds) had lots of problems.  Problem one was frozen steering (a big problem), problem two was a disconnected electrical system (no bilge pump or running lights) and problem three was a dingy cover that was a mess (i.e., the bungee cord had failed, six out of 14 clips that hold it to the dingy rub rail were missing and there was an area that was ready to rip due to massive sun damage).

Fortunatly, I was able to get the yard to address the steering problem, which was amazing due to the short notice.  They really stepped up to the plate - although they were not ashamed to charge a premium for there efforts.  The repair process involved moving the boat to their service dock and lifting the dingy off the swim platform with a crane.  Then moving the dingy to the shop where they removed the engine and unfroze
the steering mechanism.  Total cost $625.

While this was going on, I contracted Robert Carlson, a local canvas guy who after a little begging agreed to help me address the problems with the dingy cover.  It turned out that I did most of the work.  The biggest challenge was repacing the plastic clips that secure the canvas to the dingy's rub rail. Note: The cover is mega important.  Here why.  The swim platform is rated to carry 800 pounds, which is exactly the weight of the fully loaded dingy.  Bottom line.  The dingy must be covered as spray from running or rain water (water weighs 8 pounds per gallon) could easily exceed the weight limit, which, as a I said earlier is at the MAX.

You would think that 6 plastic clips would be easy to replace.  Think again.  Caribe is terrible at supplying replacement parts.  West Marine, a Caribe dealer, does not carry repacement parts.  Fortunately, the West Marine guy I worked with a sence of theit inventory and was able to recommmend an reasonable alternative.  Unfortunately, the Branford store only had two of the six I needed.  They located the other four at their Old Saybrook store, 45 minutes north.  So off I went with Diana and Kodi.  Finally, a 4:00 PM on Friday I had all the parts to repair the securing mechanism.  Robert waited for me at his shop and helped me re-rig the bungeee cord and clips (which he had to trim with a grinder) along with sewing in repair patches in the weak areas.  By 5:30 PM I had a functioning dingy cover.  Total cost: $85 to Robert (a deal) and $60 to West Marine for bungee and clips.  Note: I plan to send the cover to Robert when the boat goes into winter storage in Chicago.

My last official act on Friday was washing the dingy and covering it up, which I finally finished at 8:30 PM.

Saturday was, finally, a day for relaxation.  Diana and I were joined in the early afternoon by Lesley, my daughter, and her lttle black shitzu Kiwi.  Lesley stayed over Saturday night and accompanied us on a two hour Sunday "shakedown" cruise to New Haven harbor. Good news: The boat was running perfectly and we all had a good time.