Mer Sea

This first part of our trip has been interesting, to say the least! Yes, that is a euphemism for some more negative ways of putting it. Well, when you damage your prop, your generator breaks down again, (for the umpteenth time in 2 years) your computer crashes, and your binoculars fall and get damaged, it’s not been a banner couple of weeks! However, I’ve never been one to focus on the negative, so let me tell you some of the details of these weeks, slipping in the negatives along the way.

 

We left Burnt Store Marina at first light, with several of our friends from the dock helping with lines and bidding us safe travels. It was a calm, slightly overcast day, perfect for boating, and we pushed a bit to make some time, as we had a long day planned. We were trying to get across Lake Okeechobee before it became any shallower as a result of the drought conditions that had been persisting throughout Florida. We had the added challenge of timing our arrival at the locks along the way, which are operating on restricted hours and a strict schedule, instead of “on demand”, again because of the low lake water levels. They don’t want to open the locks and let more water than necessary out of the lake.

 

Well, we made our target destination by the end of the day, and were well positioned to cross the lake the next morning; hopefully before the relentless east wind had a chance to whip up. We set out at first light again the next day and made our way to the lake. Unfortunately, it was already pretty breezy, and on the lake, there’s no cover – if it’s windy, you’re gonna feel it!

 

We entered the channel leading to the center of the lake with some trepidation – we’d read reports that this was where the shallowest water was, and we crept along, trying to stay in the middle of the channel. It was nerve-wracking, as the wind was blowing at us from broadside, and wanted to blow us right out of the channel. The lake was, indeed, very low, and we proceeded with extreme caution and our eyes alternately glued to the depth sounder and the channel markers. We had two boats traveling behind us, and we tried to keep them posted by radio as to what we were finding along the way. At one point we found a particularly shallow spot, and as Roy reached for the radio to let them know, we felt that sickening thunk of forward motion ceasing. We were aground.

 

We have some experience at “un-grounding”, and Roy began the task of trying to gently power us off, using reverse and the bow thruster. We heard a horrible sound, one we’ve never heard while trying to get off a sandy bottom, as our prop ground through something hard. I was in the cockpit trying to spot our movement, and saw a small fishing-type boat coming up fast behind us. Maybe he could give us some wake to float us off! I told Roy to hold on and wait to power in reverse at my signal. The guy passed us, and as his wake got to our stern, I gave Roy the word. We scooted backwards off the ground! Amazing what you can accomplish in a boat when you have water under your keel!

 

Unfortunately, that was not the end of it. We were obviously on the edge of the channel at this point, and, try though we might to get to the center of the channel, it continued to elude us, as the east wind continued to blow us sideways. We were aground twice more before getting to the (slightly) deeper water of the center of the lake, and were not helped by any wakes in these cases. We again heard that awful sound of our prop cutting through something hard as we got ourselves un-grounded, and we felt sick. When we were finally in the mid-lake area, we tried to power up a bit, and felt a shudder throughout the boat. Now we were really sick. What had we done to our lovely and wonderful Mer Sea? We pulled the throttle back to a minimum speed, at which the shudder was least noticeable, and limped across the lake.

 

What a dismal ride that was! We had visions of a mangled prop, perhaps bent shaft, perhaps a damaged rudder…we didn’t know. As we made our way slowly, inviting the boats behind us to pass, we called the marina to give them an updated arrival time, and also made some calls to find a place to haul us out so that we could see the damage and take care of it in Stuart.

 

We were exhausted and grumpy as we pulled into the marina in Stuart. The harbormaster had stayed late for our arrival, which was really nice, and we pulled up to an easy, along-side tie at the fuel dock. Well, we thought it would be easy. As it turned out, with our fried brains and the continuing strong wind, it took us quite some time to get tied in a way with which we were comfortable. Whew! What a day!

 

As we were in the process of getting secured to the dock, who should come strolling down the pier but Roger, our friend from Tumbleweed, whom we’d last seen in Columbus, MS! He and Erika are a great couple, also doing the loop, but they started in Ottawa, their home, so they’re only halfway through! It was great to see Roger, even with our grumpy moods, and we promised to give them a call tomorrow when we knew more about our situation.

 

The next morning we took Mer Sea literally next door to St. Lucie Marine, where she was to be hauled. The wind continued to blow, as it had all night, and we were glad to have a ten minute hop to the destination. As we pulled Mer Sea into the straps, it was obvious that this was a jam-up operation, and that all concerned really knew what they were doing. One source of anxiety was eliminated.

 

We watched with our hearts in our mouths as Mer Sea emerged from the water and her rudder, prop, and bottom were revealed. To tell the truth, we were shocked by how little damage there was! Pleasantly so, I might add! Three of the four prop blades were damaged, and there was some paint missing from the skeg, but that was all. The rudder and shaft were unscathed. The bottom looked great. As she was nestled in the straps and lifted, the dockmaster and manager asked us if it was a brand new boat. Now, that had to make our Polish polisher feel good!! So, all in all, we were breathing more easily now.

 

They moved the boat to where she’d be staying in the yard and put her up on stands so they could take away the straps. Then they put a mechanic on the job of taking off the prop. Not an easy job. But these guys know what they’re doing, and they finally got it off. Roy went with the manager to take it to the prop shop and get the word. He came back smiling – the prop guy would be able to fix it ($375 vs. $1650 to buy a new one!). He said he could bring it back to 100%. Today was Friday, so we’d get it back on Monday or Tuesday (we were planning on Tuesday). We were literally thrilled with the news. We’d be “on the hard” for the weekend, during which time we’d stay in a hotel and rent a car, and visit the boat to do some work and polishing while she was there. All in all, not too bad for what could have been a really disastrous situation!

 

That night, Friday, we had the fun of friends from West Palm coming to have dinner with us. We’d made reservations at a fabulous Italian restaurant we’d found when here last year, Gusto. We met our friends at our hotel, and had a fantastic dinner together. It had been over a year since we’d last seen them, and there was lots of catching up to do! Their presence, good humor, and the fun of being with them totally took our mind off our recent misfortune.

 

The next day, Saturday, we spent some time trying to solve yet another problem: how to get power to the boat to keep the batteries charged so that all the food that we’d just stocked for the beginning of the trip wouldn’t spoil in the refrigerator. Normally, we can either hook up to shore power or run the generator. “On the hard”, however, we weren’t near any shore power outlets (special 30 amp plug), and couldn’t run the generator. We borrowed an adapter from the marina and strung an extension cord across the lot to the boat, but, for some reason, we kept blowing the circuit breaker in the marina’s power box, even without even turning on juice to our panel. It was a mystery, but one we needed to solve soon.

 

I called our friend Roger, on Tumbleweed, and made arrangements for us all to have dinner together. While I had him on the phone, I picked his brain about the power problem. He didn’t really know the answer, but he did offer a spare battery charger that he happened to have on board. Yippee! Problem solved! I walked over and got it from him, and hooked it up to the batteries, plugged it in to the extension cord, and, voila! Batteries were charging. No more worries! Just another example of members of the boating community looking out for each other.

 

We had another wonderful dinner that night, and so much fun with Roger and Erika. They are such an interesting and fun couple, game for anything, and they’re great to be around. They were giving us all kinds of tips regarding things to see and do when we’re in Ottawa this next time. We ate and drank and laughed our way through a delicious dinner together (that’s 3 for 3 with Roger and Erika – we haven’t had such good luck with some of our friends).

 

The next day we had the fun of a day with Dad and Joy and some of the Edward Connolly gang in Mountain Lake. Since we were close, and since we had a car, we thought, why not? - let’s just zip over and spend the day! Our two young, energetic nephews were there, along with the angelic one year old neice, and we all had a great time together! The lovely day was an unexpected bonus of our current predicament.

 

On Monday, I spent the better part of the day snooping downtown Old Stuart, which is just charming, while Roy drove Roger and Erika to do some shopping and laundry. Since we had a car, we thought we might as well get the best possible use out of it. The word had come that the prop would definitely be ready on Tuesday, so we planned to wrap everything with the car on Monday, then return the car after doing our own laundry Tuesday morning, and be ready to splash Mer Sea Tuesday afternoon, with her refurbished prop in place.

 

Tuesday morning went smoothly as planned, and we were at the marina when the prop arrived from the shop. It was beautiful! No kidding, it looked like new, and, try as we might, we couldn’t even tell which of the props hadn’t been damaged! The yard guys got the prop back on the shaft, drove the lift over, hooked up Mer Sea, and she went back in the water. During the time she’d been on the hard, Roy had polished the entire hull, and she was gleaming! She looked absolutely wonderful!

 

We motored over to the other marina, and got our slip assignment. The plan was to spend the night there, then get an early start the next morning. As we were headed to our slip, the water started dropping, and we were on the verge of panic. No! Not again! Well, there was plenty of water, as it turned out, but we were definitely running gun shy! I guess we can’t be blamed. Roger and Erika invited us over for a drink, so we had a chance to visit with them before taking off the next morning.

 

As things turned out, Stuart was a really good stop for us in several ways, and we count our lucky stars for the way things turned out: we had the chance to catch up with some friends, visit some family, and ate at some great restaurants!! Tomorrow we’d be back underway. More about that in the next journal.