Trailering a sailboat from Florida to Montana Part 2

Part 2 : Change in plans
Alan and shawnae got back with the truck and trailer, tired after 22 hours on the road, but fine.

We got the mast pulled and laid on deck for transport.

Loading on the trailer didn't go so hot. Turns out that it didn't fit! No way to test fit it ahead of time since boat was in FL and trailer was in MT. The boat lift couldn't lift the boat high enough to put it on the trailer. So they grabbed a fork lift, lifted the tongue of the trailer to tilt it to get the keel over the height of the trailer. Now the pads won't work against the hull, too long. No problem, after a few (more) hours in this Florida sun and a session with an angle grinder /cut off wheel and it all fits!

It's now almost dark, and our Florida oversize permit states "no travel after dark". We really want to get a FEW miles under our belts, so lets go - see how far we can get.

WRONG. First, thing we discovered after merging onto the interstate into 7 PM Tampa Bay traffic was that at speeds over 31 MPH, the 14,000lb boat starts to fishtail violently behind the truck.

Yikes, this is a real hazard. People are honking at us and giving us the Hawaiian good luck sign.
Then I look down and see that the engine is overheating - it's red lined.
Shawnae hopped on Google and found us a hotel at next exit. 5 miles done...3,230 to go. After a quick dip in the pool, shower and margarita (not necessarily in that order), we started thinking (rationally) about the issues.

We noticed that the required "oversize load" banner was obscuring part if the grille/ radiator. So we moved the banner.


After conferring with our son Alex by phone, we kinda figured that the load must be a little too far back, making the tongue light.

Alan and I went to WalMart and bought a come along. Alan figures we could put a strap around the damaged keel and kind of slide the boat forward some.

That actually kinda worked until we bent the handle on the come along.

This morning found us at the local Harbor Freight tools store and we bought the biggest (8 ton) come along they had. Using that, we were able to move it almost a foot. Lots more weight on the tongue now.



BUT, it's 11am on Saturday and the gosh danged permit says "no travel after noon on sat and Sunday". we decided to leave anyway and get a few miles.

No more overheating, well kinda anyway.

Speed is better; we can go 43 before the fishtailing starts. We ducked into the first rest area we came across at 1pm. Phew, no problems with the timeframe.

We've been sitting here now for 8 hours(waiting for sunrise tomorrow). We should be able to drive for 6 hours tomorrow. We moved the boat forward a little more so perhaps we can get a few more mph!

If life is kind of a learning process, we are all learning TONS about patience and problem solving! I am really impressed with how well Mark and Alan worked together to make things work. There were really stressful moments when I thought we would unhook the trailer with Firefly and leave it on the side of the road. But these two men are smart and worked it through. I am very proud.

The plan is just take it slow and easy and safely - and get home EVENTUALLY!

Trailering a sailboat from Florida to Montana

Part 1. CHANGE IN PLANs
So why would anyone sit in 95* weather in Florida at a rest area from noon until 6am?

On Tuesday, after a spectacular two day run across open ocean (211 miles), we were coming inshore to take on fuel. The next stretch is 300+ miles across open ocean to Pensacola and we wanted a full fuel tank.

Coming through the "cut" at John's Pass in Treasure Island to get inside it was quite rough and we got bounced out of the channel. We went aground HARD on the rocks. It stopped us dead in the water. After bouncing a while, eventually we got off the reef, but things were badly damaged.
The keel is gouged up, but mostly cosmetic, no leaks and everything still floating. But, it bent the rudder shaft badly. I can "sort of" steer, but clearly we are not able to continue our crossing. Repair is two weeks - pretty major.
 
So Shawnae and Alan hopped in a rental car, Enterprise $7.92 (crazy) headed for New Orleans to pick up our truck and trailer. They'll bring it back here (to St Petersburg) and we will start the driving process here. The sailing part is abruptly done.

We're all feeling very blue and disappointed. But everyone IS safe. The damage is pretty bad, but IS repairable.

All of those hundreds and hundreds (thousands actually) that we've sailed her my only to have this happen! 😢 grrrrrr

Mark made about 75 phone calls the next morning and found a marina to pull the mast in the following morning. Nae and Alan got back with truck and trailer - after driving 22 hours about 3pm to load on trailer.

Continued in Part 2

Oversized banners and flags in place.

In the Elite Marine boat yard rafted up after the mast was lowered. Waiting for them to haul us out

All loaded up and ready for the road

A night in the cockpit at the rest area

Rest area 40 miles out of St. Petersburg, FL



 

Permits for trailering our boat from Florida to Montana

After trailering back our boat Firefly from Florida and having to buy permits for being an Oversized Load, one of our followers asked about the permit process. Here is what Mark wrote in response in case any of you also would like to know.

Hello! Regarding the permits, we used a permit service called Mercury Permits - they are affiliated (in some fashion) with Boat US. Their cost isn't bad. If I remember correctly, they charge something like $15 per state. They have the... contacts and know what the rules are for the various states. There are a LOT of differences between states.

I would definitely use a permitting company again - well worth the cost.

All of the states have their own rules (e.g., daylight hours only or not, weekday travel only, sat/sun no travel, or sat/sun only until noon, no travel when raining or foggy, no travel on holidays, or no travel on the entire holiday weekend, etc.). It's really a pain the butt . . . but indeed "do-able". With all of the states "special rules" you'll find that adds considerable expense to the permit.
  
In most all states, there is construction projects and/or road width limits. So, in most cases, your route will NOT be straight through on the interstate. Some were . . . but most were NOT. In some cases (like going around Dallas, for example, it was a horrible long and winding detour route. Also going around Mobile, AL. Too bad . . . you MUST follow the exact route that they give you.

Plan to take along an extra batch of patience and a fully charged cell phone! Also, you'll need (at least) 6 red flags, two Oversize Banners (front and rear), and two revolving amber caution lights. I would suggest a couple of extras on all these because if you lose something, they'll make you pull over in the weigh stations and fix the problem before they let you on the road - - - obtaining replacement would be expensive/time consuming in the middle of nowhere (for example, on the Texas/Oklahoma border). Also, lots of duct tape and zip ties.

Again, the hardest part is that all of the states have their own rules. Count on it being a bit frustrating.

Allen's Cay to Warderick Wells, Land and Sea Park

Allens Cay to Warderick Wells (Exuma Land and Sea Park)

 

I woke up at 6am. Do you think that I wake up at 6am at home to get ready to go to work or to enjoy the weekend? Hell no! There is very little that I hate worse than mornings, but when you are out on Holiday on the water, mornings are awesome! Last one up has to make the bed. Now, that is usually Mark. He does a horrible job of making the bed. I guess that I am a little bit of a neat freak and that everything has to be organized a certain way or I kind of freak out within my own self…. But we are out here in the ocean and I have to think…who is going to see it? Who is going to care?  Am the only one that need to be satisfied…so I pause and am glad that my husband made the bed. First one up makes the coffee, so it isn’t like I am trying to be lazy, I am trying to save Mark from himself. He has burned himself quite a few times on the boat trying to make coffee. I  have basically forbid him from doing this.

 

We head out on the dinghy to shore to check out the dilapidated building, ruins, that are left on shore. We read that are supposed to be prehistoric lizards that are on shore weighing up to 25lbs. and they bite. Yikes! Our adventure was fun and I got some great pictures. We went to the other side, where the grass is greener, and I ventured out on my own crawling across the limestone and all of the sudden in the mangroves I heard this huge movement. It sounded like the size of a large dog…and I was SO OUT OF THERE!

 

There is a storm coming….we see it, but there is nothing that we can do. The current is so strong we will never get back in time to close the hatches. The boat will be soaked in this downpour. Better the fresh rain than the saltwater sprays that we get off the ocean. Yup, it is soaked and I do my best to wipe it all off. We haven’t had much sun lately to dry it all up, hope it doesn’t all mildew.

 

We head out on our sail to Warderick Well at about 10am. Mark goes to pull the anchor and realizes that the anchor rhode is wrapped around the keel. This isn’t our first rodeo for this adventure. We assessed the situation and came up with a few scenarios. It was a little sketchy since we had a catamaran anchored next to us maybe 30yd.  All of which went out the window once we dropped the boat hook over the side of the boat in an attempt to pull up the rhode. Mark went off the back of the boat and snorkeled about. He got the boat hook back and directed me where to steer the boat. We were able unwrap the anchor rhode from our wing keel. And we are off.

 

We had a great downwind run which was so greatly welcomed after all of our hard beating into the wind. We are doing about 6.5-7 knots and have surf behind us pushing us along. We will grab a mooring ball at Exuma Park for $20. They also have wifi for 24 hours or 100mb. Okay, 100mb is NOTHING! We did what we needed, like weather, writing to our guests that are coming aboard that we are not going to be able to make it to them, weather, blogging and you guessed it…weather. We have a Northerly and it is blowing like Stink. I just saw on the navigation instruments, 29knots of wind. Ugh. We are on a mooring ball and we pray that it holds. I believe that it is drilled into bedrock and then they attach a mooring  ball on a really thick rope. We come by it with our boat hook and grab the thimble in the rope and run our line through that and attach it to two cleats on our boat. Is it strong? We have no way of knowing. The ropes look good and thick that we attached to. I just walked out to the cockpit though and check the instruments. The boat is rocking like crazy and the wind is howling. It is blowing 29knots. I am glad that we are on a mooring ball and not on anchor but still freaked because the wind is so strong and there is a catamaran 30yds in front of us on a mooring ball that we have no idea how strong it is. All these unknowns…welcome to the sailing world.

 

It is kind of funny to read, or write, all of this. People tell us all the time how “lucky” we are that we get to do all of this. We chose to do this. We made it happen. It is beautiful, fun, adventurous, unsure, scary, and “oh my gosh I want to go home”. But it is something that only few will be able to do. I am thrilled to be here! (Scared but thrilled). What is living if you don’t take to the adventures that life has to offer.  Tomorrow is a new day….what will become of it?

 

 

Morgan's Bluff to Allans Cay (Exumas, Bahamas)

We woke up to an island, Morgan’s Bluff, of new hope and exploration. We had seen 4 people walking on the beach but when we arrived by dinghy there was no one around. We explored the few buildings there and then walked up and down the beach. We came across a beached sailboat. It appeared to be a 27’ Coronado with the name Moon Shadow. We tried to remove a pad eye or a cleat from it, our souvenir that would make us smile when we used it,  but the last screw on both wouldn’t budge. We walked on the island a bit, out to the bluff and we also found Captain Morgan’s Cave. That was huge underground and it was said that he put a light on the reef so that ships would come in and wreck on the reef, then plunder the cargo. It is the same guy as Captain Morgan Rum. What a jerk…but delicious rum.

Mark was able to catch a ride to town,, Nicholls Town, and get diesel. Another boat arrived, Alibi II, we decide to have sundowners together. We were up all night chatting, sharing stories and I was copying her music playlist. We had a great time with them.

We will prepare for our departure in the morning around 2am. We are headed to Nassau and then Highbourne Cay.

 

Oops! The alarm went off and I must have pushed the wrong button. We ended up getting up at 4am. Still not bad. Did all of our prep work before pulling the anchor. We headed out and we were on our way. Next stop Nassau. The tongue of the ocean, or the pocket, is about 2500ft deep. Some have said it is a worse crossing than the gulf stream from Florida. It was okay at first but as the morning progressed

We were taking 8ft waves on the bow of the boat and being sprayed with a shower full of salt water in the cockpit. We did this for 6 hours. By the time we got to Nassau we were hitting the banks. We thought for sure the 12ft of water, raising from 2500ft, would be more docile. Not so much. It was just as bad. We had felt so beat up we thought we should stop and find anchorage and try again in the morning. It is still another 29 miles to Highbourne Cay. In the end we decided with the weather clocking to the North tomorrow, we should push ourselves and make the run today. We arrived in anchorage in Allen’s Cay at about 6pm. November here the sun goes down early so it is just getting dark at 6pm. We got the anchor down, lines stowed and it was dark enough to take a shower on the swim platform of the boat and wash off all of the crystallized salt that had been sprayed all over us all day. I felt like a salt lick for some horse or goat.

Tonight Mark and I made chicken stir fry with orange zest for dinner and a couple of sundowners to round it off.

 

What a day!

 

 

Crossing from Bimini to Morgans Bluff, Andros "Take 1"

After researching all of the different weather options on the internet that we like we opted for leaving Wed night at midnight for our crossing to Morgan’s  Bluff, Andros. It is a 90 mile sail. And even if we did our best sailing and had no swell, it would take us at LEAST 16 hours.

We had dinner with our neighboring boat in Bimini at Brown’s Marina. This was s/v Whensday that had arrive on Sunday with a destroyed headsail. We had a lot of fun swapping sailing stories, sampling whiskey that Mike makes in his distillery back home and touring each others boats and sharing ideas for storage (every girls nightmare). We left them early to get a few hours of sleep before departure time.

The next morning at midnight, we got up, made coffee, started the engine and got ready to cast off the docklines. Mike had set his clock to see us off. What a guy, sailors are instant besties and help each other out. He gave us hugs and a hand shake and through out our docklines and one big shove. There is a lot of current in the the channel here. It took us a little bit but we got her turned around and going. As we are pulling out the music is loud and Bahamians are dancing at the outdoor nightclub. It is an odd feeling to see them partying it up and we are leaving to the still black night of a sea of unknown.

We motor sailed for about 2 hours and then turned East. We were beating into the wind and the waves for about an hour. Our speeds would go from 4knots to 2knots.We weren’t going to make an headway at 2knots and it just kept getting worse. So, Mark called what no one wants to call, “Let’s turn around and head back and try tomorrow”. As much as I wanted to just keep going, being the optimist (it will get better), Mark is the Captain and I completely trust his feelings, calls, and intuition. If he says turn back, then by golly we are turning back. And we did just that. We motored back and threw the hook down by Resort World Bimini’s pier. It is a new metropolis that built on the island. We checked it out a couple of days ago. It definitely kills the whole Bahamian small island feel. But it does bring a lot of jobs. We couldn’t get a straight answer though from the locals on how the felt about the “circus coming to town”.

 

Wednesday afternoon was spent fixing a few more things. We found that the frond hatch leaks quite a bit. Mark took the whole thing out and scraped out the old butel tape and went and got some 5200 to seal it in place. This is a permanent fix though, 4200 would have been better. Mark also went and got more diesel. He topped off our tanks from the jerry can that we have and then took that to town in the dinghy, beached it and walked for gas. He grabbed the 5200 and then got a ride from a local to the marina where we were and connected to wifi and rechecked the weather. Mike and Vickie from Whensday were surprised to see him but glad to hear that all was good. They were out on the lawn refitting a storm jib on the lawn to fit their roller furling. You would think that when you went from house to a boat it would all be simplified but it isn’t. There is so much to always fix.

 

While Mark was gone, I stayed on Firefly and squirreled away about 100 water bottles and 2 cases of beer. It is a bigger project then one thinks.  It was all in the V-berth and we have guests coming soon. They will need the bed space. I did it! It is all hidden away. Amazing!

 

Mark returned with everything checked off of the list of the “honey do’s” and he dset to work on the front hatch. With that fixed we decided to go for a swim. It is sweltering hot and 100% humidity. Everyone keeps telling us that it is a high for here. The water is crystal clear so we go down for a look. We dive on the anchor and check out the prop on the boat. We had a bad vibration the night before…culprit found, weeds around the prop. The water is about 80* and the only thing that doesn’t keep me there longer are the numerous jelly fish all over.

 

Thursday midnight. A new day. We get up and do the same routine as the previous night and set off into the dark moonless sky. The wind is stronger but the sea is calmer. The swells are more tame and manageable. They don’t stop us in our tracks. We sail all morning long and  finally around 6:30am we see the sunrise. I wait to take a picture when the sun is just right but I just can’t wait. I am so tired I fall asleep on the cockpit bench with camera in one hand and camera bag in the other. Maybe tomorrow I will get a shot of the sunrise.

 

To be continued…..( I got a wifi signal and will send this part)

 

 

 

 

Fishing Ucluelet, BC

In Uclulet, BC. Went off shore today and caught 2 king salmon. Beautiful sunshine and very little swell. Back to the town here for some marine/ fishing supplies. Then out to check crab pots and put down the shrimp pots. After that another run out off shore for slack tide to try for salmon and halibut again. Cool Change feels good being home.

Getting ice for the coolers and the fish isn't like your normal grocery store run. It is ice mixed with sea salt making it colder and longer lasting. This commercial ice stop has chutes that flows the ice to the bottom interior of the commercial fishing boats. Our boat is a little bit more tricky trying to get the ice into a few coolers on deck. But, this guys got it figured out. Okay, so it looked like winter on the decks of Cool Change but I got the overflow scooped into the coolers with the dust pan. Not like we are eating it.

 

We worked hard for the salmon. There were days when the swells were quite large and our crew didn't quite have their sea legs yet. There was a bit of chumming going on but I don't think that it helped to lure the fish in.

                                    Here is the king I caught on a pink hoochie.

                                                                   Molly's silver

                                                                       Myras's King

                                             A group effort by Myra, Alex and Mark

                                                                Mark and his King

                                                             Alex and his dandy King.

                                                Martin, Alan and Mark cleaning our catch.

                                          That's a nice full cooler of  a variety of fish.

We set out 3 different traps for crab at about 25ft of water. We usually catch Dungeness and Rock crabs. We can only keep the males so that the females can keep producing. We did pretty well with the Rock crab this year and feasted heavily. The Dungeness was a flop, only catching one.

                         Myra's first trip with us. She used to live in Alaska so this is natural.

                                                           Oooh! That's a dandy!

 Steamed in a covered pot of water for 10 minutes and then dip the meat in melted butter. Divine!

                                     And all of the remains go over board. Easy cleaning!

The shrimp pots, we have 2, get put down in a different area and have leaded line to keep them on the bottom. We drop them in 300ft of water. We add to it a basket of 1/3 cp of prawn bait, bought at the store, and away it goes. After the haul is brought up, after a period of time being down, we throw back the little ones to grow and remove the heads from the larger. Throw them on the BBQ and what a great hors d'oeuvre. We found when we cook them into a meal, like shrimp alfredo, they get wet and mushy.

                                                            Alex pulling out the bait pot

                                                 The bait looks and smells like dog food.

                                  The head comes off too Molly , not just the leg.  (:

                                                                And what is this??

We also picked up clams and mussels that I steamed on the stove in white wine, butter, garlic and Italian seasoning. We BBQ oysters right on the grill in their shells until they opened. This is the best way that I have ever had them. Good tip Myra!

 

The scenery is beautiful all around us. The fog rolls in too and makes it appear very cryptic.

                                          Now, how did those trees grow on those rocks??

                                                        Red right return, GREEN left.

                                          Sea lions in abundance. They were super vocal!

                         The colors in the sky were amazing. I couldn't stop snapping photos.

We also got in some hiking on the Pacific Rim Trails

Mark and I had time in between fishing and guests on board we anchored in a nice bay out of the way of all boat traffic and just relaxed. In the morning we got out and did some paddleboarding and had about 15 seals around us.

Our ocean trip has come to an end. We are now waiting for the BC Ferries to cross and get back to the states. We did good fishing and had a great time with friends and families. I also loved our time beachcombing for seaglass, driftwood and shells. We will be back again next year.