May 16 - Englewood FL

  Last Friday we left St. Petersburg, anticipating a 2 day trip back to Fort Myers.  Along the way are many bridges over the Gulf ICW that open on a schedule (every half hour or 20 minutes.)  We were waiting for a bridge to open, spinning the boat around in a narrow section of the Waterway, when a gust of wind came along and blew us slightly out of the channel.  As luck would have it, it blew us right into a rock that was about 2 feet under the water.  We eventually had to be towed off the area.  Once we were underway again we could tell, by the vibration, that we had some propeller damage.  We were able to hobble our way to Palm Island Marina. 

The next day (Saturday) we had a diver go down to look at the props and, sure enough, both of them were damaged.  Unfortunately, he could not get them off, so we had to wait until Monday when the service department was open.  Then we had the boat hauled out of the water, had the props removed and drove them to a place in Bradenton (about an hour away)  for repair. 

 

 

 Of course, repair takes a few days, so here we are still. Since we couldn’t run air conditioning with the boat out of the water and it has been in the high eighties, we had to find other accommodations. Fortunately the marina also had some condos attached to it. So we have rented one for 4 days. 

The only good part is that the marina has a nice pool, and during the week Carol was the only person in it.  It also has a very good restaurant. 

The props are scheduled to be brought back today, and we hope to get back underway tomorrow to Fort Myers, then back across the Okeechobee Waterway to Fort Pierce.