The Best Laid Plans

We say it all the time and have written it in this blog often… the worst thing to have on a boat is a schedule.  Now that doesn’t mean you can’t have a plan with a timeline.  But, you have got to have the willingness and ability to be flexible or it can be easy to get into otherwise avoidable trouble.  Three essential things need to be in order for us to shove off for our next adventure: OLOH being ship-shape to cruise, the weather meeting our standards, and as we primarily rely on marinas rather than anchorages, our dockage for our next stop being secured.

While OLOH, at sixty feet, is certainly not an unusually large boat, you might be surprised at how tight dockage can be for our size range in some areas.  Naples, Florida is a boating mecca but dockage can be extremely hard to come by for us.  We have called the Naples City Docks each of the four times we hoped to stay there as Naples is a perfect distance for us when heading to or from the Keys.  Only on this last occasion were we able to secure one night there (which we had to cancel… more on that in a moment).  Because of limited slip availability in places like this, we often have to make reservations long before we know what the weather will be. So, it’s really a crapshoot as to whether or not we’ll be able to arrive on our reserved day.  So when everything actually lines up it feels like a bit of serendipity, particularly when we’re traveling in the Gulf Of Mexico to or from the Keys where it’s about 100 nautical miles between stops, taking us as much as forty miles offshore at times.  We don’t take any risks with the weather on those legs.

With all of this in mind, we picked a date to depart Marathon, lined up our dockage, and started watching the weather and prepping the boat as that date drew near.  We start looking at the weather ten days out, knowing full well that it will likely change in that time, but we can at least start to identify trends and begin to get a sense if there’s a shot at our plan holding.  And this time around the universe was seemingly on our side as our departure day forecast only improved the closer that date got – although we knew we’d have to make it through a wicked front that was pushing through two days before…

While it was unpleasant, we weathered the storm just fine and were very happy to be safely tied at the dock while the 35+ knot winds blew through under a black sky.  Boat preps continued and the last order of business was a bottom cleaning and inspection the day before we were planning to leave.  We normally would never wait until just before departure for that piece of business and it was originally set for a handful of days earlier, but our regular diver punctured his eardrum! Obviously he couldn’t make it.  Thanks to the excellent customer service from Christopher at Underwater Solutions, an outstanding operation, his diver Ryan made the drive from Punta Gorda all the way down to Marathon to get us taken care of.  Great!  Quick cleaning and inspection and we’ll be on our way the next day.  Uh…no.

Four words you never want to hear from anybody working on your boat… “I’ve got bad news.”  While inspecting our starboard prop, Ryan noticed a crack, a small chip, and a bend in one of the prop’s four blades.  We had OLOH out a few weeks ago for a day trip and didn’t feel the boat strike anything or have any vibrations that would have resulted from a strike.  But to the diver, it definitely appeared to have resulted from the prop whacking something like a crab pot and he said, “you definitely don’t want to travel any distance with that blade like that.”  Christopher only employs seasoned, knowledgable divers and Ryan knows his stuff.  So his opinion held a lot of weight with us.

Indeed, a damaged prop can cause vibrations that can lead to a whole host of other issues and it certainly isn’t worth the risk.  Normally this is the part where we would write, “thank goodness we carry a set of spare props.”  Unfortunately, when we had our props serviced last summer, a crack was discovered in our primary starboard prop so we replaced it with the spare.  And we planned to replace the spare this winter.  Oops. (Embarrassed Captain).

And so begins the domino effect.  We enter an as-of-yet indeterminable delay, start canceling reservations and again begin eyeing the weather having no actual idea when we will be able to leave.  Because our diver was just down for a cleaning he did not have prop pulling gear with him.  Fortunately, we are familiar with an excellent local outfit we had worked with a few years prior and after a conversation were able to work out an arrangement to have the prop pulled the next day and turned around at the shop as quickly as possible.

We can’t say enough good things about Brett at Bottoms & Props and Aaron and Jenny at Prop Tec in Marathon for being so accommodating and doing their best to get us going as quickly as possible.  Most prop work is done as a result of damage so most people are in the same boat, so to speak, anxiously losing planned time on the water while their boat is out of service.  We get that.  Which makes their hustle and great service appreciated even more.  A day after the prop was pulled it was fixed and then installed the following day.  We think that’s a pretty remarkable last-minute service.

While we missed our original weather window, the two days after the prop was installed were also looking good and we were able to proactively secure reservations, although not at the Naples City Docks.  We returned to our standby (which we do love), Naples Sailing and Yacht Club.  Thanks, Amanda for being so flexible and accommodating with their limited availability.

Delays are frustrating.  The compounded issues that can result can pile on those frustrations.  But at the end of those frustrating days, we always try to step back and keep everything keenly in perspective.  We’ll say it again… we feel so fortunate to be able to live this salt life and if these are the worst of our problems, we’re doing alright.

Onward we go.  See you out there!

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