Clark prepped the boat for a short voyage while I made a quick run to the Publix food store for some last-minute provisions. By the time I got back, he had the boat ready to go. We set sail for the fuel dock at City of Fort Myers Yacht Basin at 10:30. I sent off an email to JoAnn and Jim on Namaste as soon as I had pulled in our lines as they planned to meet us at the fuel dock and join us for our little excursion around the harbor.
Of course I had all the lines and fenders on the port side, and the docking for fuel clearly called for a starboard tie. Clark let the boat drift while I repositioned everything. With the wind pushing us towards the dock, when I looked up from tying the last fender, I barely had time to grab a line before it was time to hand it to the dock hand. The timing worked out quite well. I am sure Clark cannot see me working on the lines, so I wonder how it timed it so well?!
Immediately after Jim and JoAnn came on board, we put them to work helping with lines and fenders. The dock hand at the fuel dock tied the bow line so tight to the dock that we could not bring in the stern. That wasn't so bad but before long I realized that the rub rail on the side of the boat was working overtime as it scraped up and down on the wooden piling of the dock. Since everything was tied so tightly, I could not even push the boat off the pole to get relief.
I finally got the dock hand's attention to give some slack on the bow line, and then Jim, JoAnn and I worked together to push the boat away from the pole long enough to get a boat fender tucked between the boat and the pole. Every time we thought we had the fender positioned properly the boat would shift. Finally I grabbed a spare line hanging from that offending pole and used it to hold the boat in place manually.
Eventually I got smart, however, and used that same line to tie the boat into a position that kept the fender from shifting out of line. After that I managed to sneak away for a few minutes to give JoAnn and Jim a bit of a boat tour. They oohed and aahed over our new boat in all the appropriate spots. When the boat fueling exercise completed, we had to get off the fuel dock. The wind pushing us in made landing easy. That same wind now held us in place.
One of the items on Clark's "punch list" of repair items is the stern thruster. It does not operate from the upper helm as the "joy stick" control needs to be replaced. While Jim and I handled the lines, Clark put JoAnn to work manning the stern thruster from the lower helm. On his word, Clark ran the bow thruster while JoAnn worked the stern thruster. Great teamwork, we pulled away from the dock slick as anything!
Later, JoAnn let me know she had been nervous doing her job. As someone who is doing the loop on a sailboat, she has not operated a stern thruster before. She said, "Clark told me no more than ten seconds, so I counted 1-1000, 2-1000, and so on to be sure I got it right". She did a great job!
JoAnn and Jim brought some food and drinks with them as we intended to find a spot to drop anchor for lunch. Using "Active Captain", Clark and Jim found a place to drop anchor for our bite to eat. Before eating, however, JoAnn captured a couple of pictures of the captain and crew. She sent me the pictures, and only when I went to write up the blog for today did I notice that she had managed to avoid being in any of the pictures herself!
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| Jim and Clark at the helm |
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| Clark and Ev at the helm |
We had a lovely afternoon on the water with them and, between what they brought and I provided food-wise, we had quite a banquet for our little luncheon on the water. After our relaxing meal, Jim and Clark went to get us underway.
JoAnn and I kept busy in the salon / galley area cleaning up after our meal while the guys brought up the anchor. As a result we missed most of the action. At some point I heard some discussion between the two guys that did not indicate smooth sailing. Later Clark told me that they discovered yet more issues with the boat. The anchor line / chain jammed several times as he tried to bring up the anchor. Thankfully Jim helped him get the anchor on board.
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| Jim "manning" the anchor and winch station |
We pulled back into our slip at Legacy Harbour around 3:00. I greatly appreciated Jim and JoAnn's help with the lines as we pulled into our slip. Clark said the wind would be pushing him into our neighbor's boat, so the crew had to get the lines in place quickly to hold the boat to our dock. I gave JoAnn the midship position, but then I heard her call Jim and saw that she handed the job off to Jim.
I ran for the stern to get a line on back there as soon as possible. As we came in, I yelled to Clark to move closer to the dock. I had opened the side door before we came in, so when we came past the dock, I stepped off with a line in hand to help walk the boat in. It all went off without a hitch. I even got complimented on my handling of the lines by a passerby! So proud!!
Having spent several hours on our boat with us, Jim and JoAnn left shortly after we docked. They had to walk back to their marina to get back to their dog they left on their boat as well as meet up with a person who would be looking at their outboard motor that no longer starts. (With boats, there is always something that needs to be repaired!)
Clark and I had to return our rental car before 5:00, and while fueling, Clark discovered worn out seals on the deck caps for the fuel fills. Since water in the fuel is a very bad thing, he decided we needed to get to a store to buy new O-rings for the caps before turning in the car.
We both thought that the Marine Trading Post store would be more likely to have what we needed than West Marine, so we went there. As we approached the store looking for the entrance, Clark said, "Just look for the mural!"
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| Mural at Marine Trading Post store |
Unfortunately, we made the wrong choice as they did not sell O-rings separately. Due to the lateness of the afternoon, we hit heavy traffic on the route to West Marine, and it felt like it took forever to get there. Fortunately, they did sell O-rings that appeared to be the right size, so we grabbed them and took off for the car rental place to return the car.
It seemed like rush hour everywhere. When we entered Enterprise, all three clerks were busy with customers picking up cars and yet more customers waited for service. The big selling point for Enterprise is their "We'll pick you up" motto. We took advantage of that and requested a ride back to the marina.
Through all of this late day activity, I nervously paid attention to the time. I had scheduled a Facetime get together with my younger son, Chris, and my granddaughter Lily for "5-ish" o'clock. As we stepped out of the car in the marina parking lot, Chris texted me to ask if I was ready to Facetime with them. What timing! We quickly ran back to the boat, picked up the iPad, and got online with them.
What a great birthday present for me - watching Lily keep my son on his toes as she played, climbed, and got into mischief all over the downstairs of their house. Every once in a while she would stare into Chris's phone at us with a "what are you doing in there waving at me" look on her face and then take off on her next adventure. What a fireball of energy! She is one next month and not yet walking, but she is crawling and "cruising" like a champ and gets where she wants to be with lightning speed. Heaven help her parents when she learns how to walk / run!
After dinner tonight, Clark spent a good long time on trip planning. We have four days to get to Marathon in the Keys, and we need three. We'll need to "double up" somewhere along the way as Faro Blanco's daily per-foot-of-boat rate is too expensive for us to entertain arriving there even one day early. He said we will check the weather in the morning as well as availability at marinas or moorings to decide where we are going. I am so glad he does the trip planning. I do not care where we go as long as I don't have to be the one to decide!
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