Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Boat Trip Epilogue

I ended my last post from the boat trip, "the only question is whether the boat has any propellors or pods."

Unfortunately, the answer to that question was no. In the morning, two divers showed up and after about 20 seconds underwater, came up to give me the bad news. There were no pods. No props. The boat was completely immobile.

I spent most of the next few days on the phone with the insurance company, boat mechanics, a boatyard, etc and handled other logistics. Sababa was towed to a working boatyard and hauled out where she will sit until we can get new pods and props and get her going. I was told to expect around a month. I had to cancel some boat outings that I had planned back home.

We rented a car and drove 3.5 hours to Charleston where we met up with Ann and Benny, and Tony flew to Denver where he had a business meeting. Ann rented a couple of rooms at the Marriott Courtyard in the Historic district, and we spent a week doing the typical Charleston tourist things - a land-based vacation. Saturday night, we flew back to Baltimore, and I continue to work on logistics to get the boat fixed and the repairs paid for. I'm impatient by nature, so it will seem like a long time until Sababa is back. If things go really badly and it takes several months, I think I'll leave the boat and even take her further South for the Winter to avoid winterizing. If she's ready sooner, then I'll either hire a captain to bring her back to Baltimore, or I'll go get her myself.