We got up at 3:15AM and drove down to Indiantown. We arrived at the marina to see the boat at around 7:10 and use the facilities. I then hear… “What the F*$#…” I exited the facilities and went looking for Andy only to find out that he received a text (didn’t hear it on the phone) at 6:10am that stated the driver would not be meeting us as confirmed to pick up the boat, provided us with an alternate driver who maybe able to do it in a couple of days and wished us luck. Seriously, you couldn’t pick up the phone and call us? Then he proceeded to ignore our attempts for phone calls, text and email response. So we left a message for the alt driver and waited for the office at the marina to open up. They didn’t have availability with the travel lift for the next couple of days as they were over booked. In the meantime, we needed to have the boat at the new marina in 24 hours or risk loosing our spot. (There was a waiting list to get into this marina.)
We then had to contact the prior owner of the boat who had the masts and was waiting for us to be able to pick them up was rather upset as this as well. We both were completely at wit’s end so we needed to take a time out… Off to cracker barrel for breakfast we went and to figure out another plan.
Andy pulled it out of a hat and got the alternate guy, who by the way was already aware of the move over a week ago and was waiting to find out what to do and confirmed that the price we agreed to with the original mover was not what he agreed to with the mover. I highly doubt that he would pay to have job done. So wondered about this for a few minutes. Obviously if the original mover had made plans and the new mover was aware why confirm 48 hrs before the actual move that you were ngoing to be there and then cancel at the last minute and not let us know of the cost difference. Why not just tell us ahead of time and let us know so we can figure out what to do? Ok so I digress…. So, we were able to arrange moving with Albert’s Marine who after having to make repairs to his truck would be able to do the move however, he could not confirm that it could be done as planned on 5/9. We explained this issue we had with the availability of the marina and travel lift.
Additionally, the cost of the move increased by $1500 to make this happen today. We then had to find a credit union to pull out cash because we didn’t have checks on us…. they were not able to access our account so off to another bank we go…. finally got the moving money and back to the marina to wait and hope that we can see a truck and much to our relief, he called us back at 11:15am and said the repairs were done on his truck and he will be at the marina as scheduled for the 1pm lift appointment. But he needed to leave it overnight because he needed a pilot car (Free Spirit is too big and oversized for the road) and that would not be available until the next day. So we still had to pick up the Masts that were at another location and that moved to the following day. We were so happy and relived when we saw Albert coming in with the Truck! We felt a sudden sense of relief and excitement that we going home. Later than planned but going nonetheless. Said move the next morning was smooth and we were on the road to Palmetto around 9am! Yay us!! or so we thought…
5/10 – We arrived at the new marina at 12:30 and was told there was no water slip which we thought was odd but front desk person said that maybe there was a change that we didn’t know about and we needed to speak with yard manager. So we wait again, the boat has arrived and we unloaded the mast on stands and got the boat into her spot for work to be done. (Because what else were we supposed to do, right.) When asked where we were going in the water, after the 2 week dry dock work was done, we were promptly advised there was no water slip for us and this was never arranged. Apparently this marina has no slips for a sailboat as big as ours. Had we known this from the beginning we might have come up with another plan… We made it perfectly clear that we needed a slip to go in the water so I am not sure where the confusion came in at…
So now are in dry dock for the next 2 weeks. We can be there for up to 3 months if needed so we now get to figure out something else. We are on a waiting list for another marina and had we known that just a week ago when we were called for the slip, we would have taken that slip just to be safe… so what happens now? We have no idea, for now we continue with the plan to get her water ready and work in the order of priority for the items needed. We have to get her ready to go in the water as soon as possible and that is where we are for now…. up in the air now and figuring this out as we go along.
As of 5/12 and this post we have no updates for the status of a marina slip…. more to come…