We had planned to have some work done on the boat in Norfolk, on our way up to spend the summer in the Northeast. The yard, which we’d heard good reviews about from multiple people, seemed to be stalling and my friend Jonathan gave us the real story, apparently a wooden boat had come apart on the rail system they use for haul-out.
We started looking around locally in Fort Lauderdale and the big yard right up the river, Lauderdale Marine Center was able to schedule us in. It’s quite a circuitous and narrow trip up the river – the reason we see so many boats under tow headed that way.
Their massive Travel-Lift used to haul us out, named Brutus, got the boat a few inches out of the water when it refused to go any further, demanding an additional strap for the 115 plus tons of Wanderbird.
For the past week we’ve been ‘on the hard’ having the bottom painted, the keel coolers ‘speed-propped’ along with the propellor, repairs to some leaky windows, fiberglass repairs to the bow and Luke has been working long days repairing hoses and fittings in the cooling and refrigeration systems.
We were scheduled to be back in the water Wednesday the sixth, but they’re wanting to push us to Thursday or Friday – has any shipyard project ever finished on-time? We’re anxious to head north, the plan now being a push directly to NYC where we’ll pick-up Paul, then a week there for pride and on up to Provincetown for the fourth.
Here’s hoping the weather is cooperative once we finish the yard work.
