Boat Trips

A song popped into your head right there, didn’t it?
YES! The time is getting much shorter. In fact, I’m writing this as we are on a ferry on our way to Canada! But first, we need to rewind a bit so tht I can fill you in on all the ”fun” we’ve been having. 🥴

Four weeks ago, June 7: We loaded Island Girl onto the AAL GENOA. Well, we didn’t actually see her get loaded. We’re assuming she was loaded! 🙏🏼 Last time we saw her, she was tied up to the side of the ship. We’re hoping they remembered that she was there, and didn’t just drag her all the way to Canada. 😳

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Tuesday, June 7. I woke up at 5:30 and checked the ship locator websites. YAHOO! AAL GENOA is berthed in Port Everglades!! 🥳
We got up, went and picked up our Budget Rental car to take us to the airport tomorrow. We’ve received no communications regarding loading today, so we’re assuming that means we’re still on schedule for 1830 tonight. I made us a couple of sandwiches and we took off for Port Everglades at about 9:30. I know that’s way early, but I just had visions of a traffic jam somewhere between here and there, and we cannot afford to miss the ship!!

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Sunday morning, 6/5 0945: We just got an email saying that the third crane on our ship is not functioning, so the ship will anchor at Port Everglades until that is fixed, before berthing in the Port. 🤨 Schedule to be determined. Are you kidding me?! So we wait ⏰ some more.

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Friday, June 3: I’ve been watching the websites that show our ship’s position, as well as watching the Port Everglades schedule. I’m obsessed with watching. We sent our vessel specifics to our Loadmaster, and let him know where Island Girl currently sits, since she is at least 1.5 hours travel time away from the Port. That way if anything changes, he knows that we need at least two hours notice.

Our ship has left Savannah and is on her way to Port Everglades. YAY! But things are a bit inconsistent now. Boo! Port Everglades shows her arriving on 6/4 Saturday (TOMORROW!) at 20:00.

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Monday 5/30, we got an email update that our ship is still scheduled with an ETA of June 5-6, and a Victoria ETA of June 25-26. They even sent us our Bill of Lading and insurance info! Woo-hoo! Only a week to go. And a storm. 😳 Check out this forecast for Sunday morning 6/5 at 8:00am. We DO need THAT swirly thing to get out of the way before we load Island Girl!!!

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Friday May 20, I can see that the AAL GENOA has arrived in New Orleans. No idea where she goes from there, or when. We received an e-mail from CCYT that her ETA to Port Everglades is now June 3-4, and Victoria June 23-24. They’ve moved earlier by a day at each end. That’s good!

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Monday May 16, we were up at 7:00 (with the help of an annoying alarm clock on my phone) so that we could get on our way. We were docked right above the lock, so we could be ready to go when we wanted, or we could catch a lock through if somebody else showed up. The lock opened for the days business at 7:00. We were puttering around making coffee, turned on the radio, and at about 7:30 heard someone eastbound calling the lock, with no response. Hmmm. We figured we better get set to go, and then we saw the eastbound boat show up coming down the river. So we called the lock too, and we didn’t get a response, either. Our neighbor in the Pilgrim boat Dancing Bears, (which IS the old HMS Vagabond that we knew!!) was getting ready too. We finally got the lockmaster to respond, and he told us to call again when we were off the dock and waiting. OK, so three minutes later, we called him again. 😏 THEN he said he needed to reset the lock, so it would be 15-20 minutes (it’s a 12 foot exchange of water). WHAT?! There was already a boat here waiting?! Why did he need US to be off the dock and floating before he would start?! Sheesh!

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You guys. You’ll never guess what happened today. Go ahead – try.
Nope. Guess again.
Nope – but you’re getting closer. I’ll tell you in a minute.

We knew it would be a long, kinda boring day, so we got underway right about 8:00 this morning. The good thing about this stretch is that about every fourteen miles, there’s something to do to wake us up: The Franklin Lock, the Fort Denaud Swing Bridge, the Ortana Lock, and then the dock at Moore Haven for a total of 55 miles. Captain has been keeping the rpm down just a bit, so our average speed is just a little under 9mph. Trying to save some $$ on fuel!

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Thursday 5/12- it was a short voyage, only 20 miles. Good-bye pretty gulf water, hello brown Okeechobee water.

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Tuesday 5/10 – I spent the morning trying to find places for us to stay for the next week or so. I got a few reservations to get us through Sunday, but after that, we’ll be on the Atlantic coast, and it’s a little harder to find space. Some marinas I’ve checked with don’t have any transient space because they’re full with annual or seasonal slip holders. Dang! Another one we’re on a waitlist for Monday. And then we have to find a place to leave Island Girl for two weeks while we go home and wait for ”our ship to come in”! Agh! The cheapest marina that I can find is where I thought we might stay for a few days and ’stage’ until our loading date. It is $1.50/ft/day plus $16/day for power. That’s dirt cheap for the Fort Lauderdale area. The problem now is that we’ll need to leave Island Girl there for at least two weeks, and the transient dock is not secured, and has open access to a huge parking lot at the beach. And I’m not sure if we have to pay for power? Hopefully not, but even without it, it’ll be nearly $900 with tax for two weeks. So I started looking for alternatives. In ”Snag-a-Slip” I found private dock owners that are advertising. They all want a long term lessee, but what if somebody has mercy on us and our situation? The best rates are $20/ft/month, or $900-1000/month flat rate, so we could come out ahead paying for a month. And then Island Girl isn’t sitting at a public dock. Hmmm.🧐 I sent six requests. We’ll see!

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