Thursday May 26, 2011

We were up early to have breakfast and get to the boat to meet Captain Kirk who was going to help us take the boat to Snead Island Boat Works. This provided Brian with his first opportunity to get the boat off the dock (with a little coaching from Captain Kirk). Click on the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzT6tPWfc4k

Here are a couple of the neighbour's boats, both 80ft+ and we didn't even come close to them. Good work Captain Brian!

We left Riveara Dunes at 8:10 am and after a short run down the Manatee river, we arrived at Snead Island Boat Works, a sort of old time rustic place, at 8:45 am.

We were in the slings ready for haul out at 8:49 am

They had the boat in the pressure wash station by 8:59 and they were removing the props

The rudder definitely needs straightening ....

By 9:17 am, the props were off and the boat was on its way to the work yard. These guys must have worked in the NASCAR pits!

By 9:45 am we had the props in the SUV on the way to the propeller repair shop in Tampa Bay. When we got there, they promised to get on them right away and have them ready for pick up tomorrow. Great service!

The next job was to pick up the new anchor chain at West Marine. This was a challenge as it was in a 250 lb barrel but we did manage to get it into the back of the SUV.

Then it was time for lunch and a meeting with the boat broker at Rivera Dunes Marina for Brian and Joan to sign off all of the papers for the boat purchase.

By the time we returned to the boat yard, the rudder had already been repaired. The bad news was that when we tried to hoist the new anchor chain into the boat using the windlass, it kept jambing. After some head scratching and dismantling of the windlass, we discovered that West Marine had sold us $1000 worth of the wrong size chain (BBB instead of G4). So, we loaded it all back in the car and had another trip to West Marine for a refund.

The people at Snead Marine were very helpful in locating another store in Tampa that had 1000 ft in stock so it is off on another trip to Tampa tomorrow morning to get chain and hopefully, pick up the propellers from the re-conditioning shop by noon. This would allow Snead to finish all of their work (prop repair, rudder repair, steering hydraulic leak, install new prop shaft seals, install new prop shaft line cutters, replace shower sump) in time to get us back into the water before the long weekend.

We returned to the motel for a swim in the pool then a late supper followed by a trip to WalMart to pick up a few odds and ends to equip the galley and some red wine to keep the Captain happy.