Day 1: February 26, 2013 Fort Myers FL
We begin this adventure on February 26, 2013 at 4:00am on a potentially rainy cold day in Somerset OH. We had been preparing for this trip for well over a year. Our original plan was to come to Florida at the end of February of 2012 but an untimely tear in my rotator cuff two days before the departure date caused a yearlong cancellation.
We began packing Panache for the 2013 trip a good month before the departure date and were ready to head out when the 3:30 alarm went out on the 26th. The first leg of our trip took us to Kennesaw, GA where we spent a great evening with a long time friend from high school, Steve Turley and his wife Debbie. The drive to Georgia was uneventful except for a significant rain storm that hit just as we were passing through Cincinnati in pre rush hour traffic. The truck and trailer both handled well. I am always concerned about wheel bearing failure on the trailer and was pleased to find cool hubs every time we stopped for gas (which was quite often).
From the Turley’s, we traveled to Englewood Fl. where we spent the night with a former teaching colleague, Mary Ann Barnett and her husband Lee. That leg of the journey was completely uneventful with cool trailer hubs all the way around at each stop. The truck computer kept us informed of the fact that our gas mileage indicator was reading 9.7mpg the whole way. We did make a bunch of gas stops.
We left the Barnett’s early on February 28 and made the relatively short jump to Fort Myers. We stopped at a Wal-Mart to pick up a few last minute supplies and upon returning to the truck, I noticed that our “Masthead Fly,” (the device located at the top of the mast that gives wind directions), was missing. Now, there is history here. Last year, as we set up the boat for launching in Duluth, MN, I forgot to attach the Fly and the radio antenna to the mast before we departed and I had to winch a willing Janine to the top of the mast to at least install the antenna. To prevent that from happening again this year, I attached both of the pieces to the mast while still in Ohio. So to finish this part of the story, we had to stop at West Marine and buy a new Fly!
We arrived at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin at around 9:30 and were greeted by a truly friendly harbor master who was most accommodating at providing a parking spot for our truck for the month and offering a myriad of services provided by the city facility. We opted to anchor out in the bay for the night and really required no additional services.
The launch ramp in Ft. Myers is about a block away from the harbor master’s office located in a beautiful park like setting. We arrived to a mostly empty parking lot and began the task of setting up the boat and getting it into the water. Our goal was to significantly beat the 5 hour setup time that we set last year. And, we started out well with the mast going up without a hitch, I would say, was record time. As the morning progressed, we began to encounter small hitches in our routine that seemed to be bogging down our progress. Also, as we were setting up, the parking lot began to fill up with trucks and boat trailers and visitors to the park. By around noon, were realized that we were completely surrounded by vehicles and virtually no room to pull our rig out so as to be able to launch our boat. We both fretted as to how we were going to make our exit.
Alas, as we were getting ready to put the sails on the boat, I realized that I had left the line to our “lazy jack,” a rope structure that holds the mainsail onto the boom when we drop the sails, off of the block (pulley in layman’s terms) which is located half way up the mast. SO, Janine got to ride up the mast again this year. She is amazing!
The next step was to raise the Genoa jib onto the jib furler at the bow of the boat. The furler is the device around which we rap the sail when we are not using it. It turned out that the system or pulling the sail up the furler was somehow not aligned and we were not able to get the sail all the way to the top of the mast. SO, Janine, this time, got to go all the way to the top of the 35 foot mast to untangle the jib halyard. One passing fisherman asked me if my wife’s life insurance policy was paid up.
Next, in my advancing age, I have to take the motor from the truck bed and hang it on the back of the boat. I use to carry it over, but these days, I disconnect the truck from the trailer, back up to the back of the boat, drag the motor onto the tailgate and hang it. It is a lot easier that way. In the process, I realized that if I hook a chain on the back of the trailer, I could pull the boat out of the parking spot into the roadway and then pull around and hook back up to the truck. And that we did. I must say, it stopped several passersby who were curious about what this “nut” was doing. It worked and we headed for the ramp. The boat wasn’t quite ready to drop in the water but at least we were out of the parking spot.
As I was backing up, Janine told me that the wheels on the trailer were really growling and upon inspection, I found that one of the hubs had the Bearing Buddy cap over the hub missing and parts of the bearing were sticking out. It was obvious that that hub had been really hot because the paint was burned off. Again, I say that every time we stopped, I checked that hub and it was cool. It must have gone south on the way between Englewood and Fort Myers. I do carry an extra set of bearings for just this eventuality but checking my tool bag, I realized that I did not bring a punch to remove the races. I would have to get one before I could fix it.
I connected the motor to the battery and punched the starter button to check to see if it would start and it just grunted. I had heard that sound before in Minnesota. Oil had filled one of the cylinders of the engine and would not allow it to turn over. This is a problem of carrying the engine on its side. I needed to take out the spark plugs, clean them, blow the oil out of the engine and then try to restart it. I went to my tool bag and my sparkplug wrench is in Ohio. I now needed to make a trip to an auto parts store. I quarried one of the several onlookers as to where the nearest one was and after moving the boat away from the ramp and unhooking again, I went to pick up the need supplies. I also picked up a spray can of carburetor cleaner to be used to get the oil out of the spark plugs.
Back at the boat, the restarting process went well and the motor was running in about 5 minutes.
NOW, it’s time to put the boat in the water. Another very friendly soul offered to help. We assume that we looked so pathetic that we needed all the help we could get. The wind was blowing directly into the dock making the launch a bit tricky but with the help of the bystanders, we pulled it off without a hitch. We fired up the motor and headed for the marina. On my trip to the parts store, I had stopped and arranged for the rental of a slip for the night assuming that in our now state of fatigue, it would be much easier to tie up to a dock than deal with anchoring and dinghy transportation back and forth to shore. We got to the marina at 4:30. A new record in time required to launch the boat!
At the marina, we met some friendly folks who offered that the best place for great seafood was a place called “Pinchers” and after we dropped the trailer off at a storage lot where she would reside for the next month, we found this fantastic eating establishment and had our first real meal of the day. I had my first taste of blackened grouper and Janine had a super crab cake. We were most pleased with our food and service.
Back at the boat it was easy to crawl into bed at 9:00 and both of us slept well.
A final note: We are both amazed at the level of friendliness that we have encountered. Everywhere we went the people we encountered were really friendly and willing to offer assistance where possible. These folks are really nice down here.
No comments:
Post a Comment