"What!"
She added, "Seriously, we have been working on this boat since June and have been traveling daily since we left Eastport, Maine in July. Except for the days when we couldn't, because of the weather we have been moving. I absolutely do not want to make the crossing across the gulf and besides the dogs want off the boat!"
" Well, the dogs didn't tell me that", I quipped.
I understood. It really has been a hectic trip, more like a delivery than a vacation and the most stressful part would be ahead of us. We have been agonizing about crossing the gulf since we left the east coast. Several times a day we would watch the thunderstorms across the northern gulf, trying to see a pattern so we could time our crossing. On the east coast the storms had been fairly predictable. We could travel in the morning and be anchored or in a marina by 2 or 3 in the afternoon and safely watch the thunderstorms pass. The pattern on the west coast was different. The storms were occurring not only in the mornings but also overnight. We discussed several scenarios such as going 90 miles further north to Steinhatchee to easily cross the 60 miles to Carrabelle, or running at top speed to make it across as quickly as possible or leaving the boat on the west coast of Florida until winter brought more settled weather, etc. etc.
Our pass time during storms. Of course the Admiral had the large glass.
"OK, You got it. I will hire a captain and you can meet us in Carrabelle." A look of relief crossed Beth's face and I swear, both dogs grinned!
I made the arrangements. Mike Chapman is married to Jaimie Chapman, our circulating nurse in the operating room at the hospital. He also has his captain's license. He captained crew boats to the gulf oil rigs and now works for Sea Tow in Port St. Joe. He agreed, drove down to Ft. Myers and gave Beth his truck so she and the grinning dogs could wait for us in Carrabelle.
Tom Delouche, the diver recommended by Coastal Props in Fort Myers, put the props back on and the next morning we headed on the outside to Venice. As I throttled up the Detroit's to see if the motors were going to handle running on the top end we heard and felt a vibration. I immediately pulled the throttles back. The vibration was not so bad at cruising speed but the vibration was still there.
" Damn! Did they do the props wrong? Did something come loose? Did we pick up a crab line? Are we doing any damage to the running gear?" rapidly shot through my mind.
We eased into our dock in Venice and as soon as we were secure Mike donned a bathing suit and jumped into the water to take a look at the running gear. I expected him to come up with a handful of line. He came up with a surprised look on his face.
"Your prop nuts are loose!" he exclaimed. "I can turn the locking nuts and the main nuts by hand!"
Immediately, I called Coastal Prop and they had the diver call me. I explained the situation to him and asked him to come to Venice and correct the problem. He gave me some bullshit story about how the vibration was probably from a line that must have come off when we reversed gears to dock the boat and the props wouldn't come off because the were constantly pushing the boat forward and there was a cotter key preventing the nuts from coming off, blah! blah! blah!
"We see loose prop nuts all the time." he said.
"You need to come up here and fix this." I replied.
"I'm not coming to Venice. Get a diver to go down and tighten them up." he replied.
That ended the conversation. There was no way I would have another diver go down and replace a prop again. They just can't put them on securely underwater. To do so is a temporary fix, at best.
We eased out off the dock in the morning and headed for Clearwater and I started working the phone to find a marina that could do a quick haul on the boat to check the running gear and tighten the props.
Francisco Costa, (Yacht Solutions) at Cortez Cove Marina could handle us as soon as we could get there. It was a tight squeeze to get in but they had 4 men helping and within an hour had the boat pulled, the running gear checked, and the prop nuts securely tightened down. I took pictures of the nuts as soon as the boat came out and they weren't even touching the props. I immediately called Coastal Props and the Fort Myers Marina to inform them of this divers shoddy work and lack of professional customer service.
It turns out that the loose nuts were probably not responsible for the vibration. There is a computer relay that controls the stabilizers that had come loose. We had no further problem once I pushed the relay back in.
We headed back out and enjoyed a smooth ride all the way up the coast to Clearwater. No waves, just a slow undulating swell and the deep throbbing hum of the big Detroits. Mike pointed out a number of sea turtles and flying fish. It was interesting how these fish seemed to tail walk across the surface of the water. Since my photographer had jumped ship, I had no way to capture the images.
Pulling into the fuel dock at Clearwater Municipal Marina was straight forward. I filled the aft tanks to make sure we had enough fuel to get across the gulf. Jumping in to fire up the port motor.....no go! Depleting every curse word in my vocabulary, I used the starboard motor to coax the boat to our assigned slip.
"Where was Beth and her magic finger"? I thought silently. She was always able to get this motor going when I couldn't. This is a problem that has plagued us intermittently for the trip to and from Maine. Mike and I wiggled pushed and poked everything we could thinking a wire or something must be loose...no luck. I tried to call a mechanic....no luck. All I could think of was the weather window we were about to lose if we couldn't get away in the morning. Once we maneuvered on one engine and got all the power and water hooked up I passed by the lower helm and out of frustration jabbed at the start button one more time.....VROOM! I still don't know what is wrong but it appears that given time to cool what ever is wrong is made right. We would be leaving in the morning.
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