4/3-4/5/24 Haul Out

4/3 When you have repair work done at Thunderbolt Marine they assign you a project manager, you go over everything to be done, they lay out expected time line and costs. We had a simple job to be done; sail drive service (and while it was out might as well pressure wash the bottom and replace the zincs) . Shane had been keeping an eye on the oil in our port side drive and had decided we should do the service on the way back. There is not a great spot for haul out or service up near us in New Bern and Thunderbolt was along our rout and was able to put us on the schedule and it wouldn’t hold us up too long. Shane had laid out with our project manager that we wanted this to be a quick in and out; 1 day out of the water at the most. We woke up early for a 7:30 haul out, the marina had a lovely dockhand come to help Shane on the boat (because Mama here was either getting off on the dock or would be stuck in the boat the whole time it was on the hard; I don’t do ladders or hopping off things dangling in the air). The boat came out nice and easy the lift operator was great. Pressure wash went quick in the slings, then they blocked and set the boat down. There was some question since they hadn’t blocked a boat like ours before so they sent and engineer down to guide the process. Shortly after it was on the ground the service guy came to take out the sail drives. Shane got to watch everything he was doing and get tips for future work. By this time it was pouring rain and we were not overly optimistic for the quick turn around we had hopped. However, the service guy took the sail drives to his shop to do the seal work and promised he’d be back after lunch time to reinstall. Shane and I grabbed some lunch did a few computer tasks (they had a great captains lounge for us to hang in away from the rain) and await his return. There he was right after lunch ready to reinstall. Again Shane watched over his shoulder absorbing any and all information shared. By the time the work was done it was only 1:00 or so, the skies were beginning to clear and Shane was hopeful we’d get back in the water the same day. Sure enough the lift operator said he could do and by about 1:45 we were back in the water and secured back in our slip. No hotel room needed! We can not say enough about how great the service was at Thunderbolt Marine, they took great care of us through the whole process. Sometimes in places like this when you have a little job like we did they overlook you but we never felt that way here. We celebrated a great day by running some errands, returning the rental car and walking up to Tubbies again when we decided we had better eat something!

4/4 We woke up ready to head out of Savannah. We got one last part the marina had gotten fabricated for us bright and early. Cruised over to the fuel dock, fuel up and set off for Hilton Head. The weather was good and we enjoyed sun shine and just enough wind on our nose to keep us motoring. But hey that’s life in the ICW. We got in mid afternoon to Safe Harbor Skull Creek Marina, after safely navigating by a sunken sail boat that we had been hearing about on the VHF for days! We took a long walk to dinner at the Boat House. Man that place was hopping, we got a spot at the bar and enjoyed some pretty good food and fun atmosphere. We timed it just right by the time we were leaving the line was LONG! We opted for an Uber back and enjoyed sunset on the boat.

4/5 Time to head to Charleston our next long stop. We took off probably a little later than we should have and paid for it later in the day. We were going to miss the Ladies Island Swing Bridge by 10 minutes, we slowed to a crawl so we wouldn’t have to spin for 50 minutes waiting on the next opening. We still got there a solid 15 minutes before opening and had to twirl for a while. We mad it through and carried on. The day drug on and it was getting later, we had the Wappo Creek Bridge still to go and had to work the timing for that. We indulged in a gourmet dinner of hot dogs grilled while under way. We pulled into the Mega Dock at Safe Harbor City Marina just as the sun was getting low. We had an easy spot right at the end of the face dock. Easy on and off but LONG walk to land (a literal half mile just to get off the dock, we clocked it to be sure). We got settled watched the sun go down and then got to see fireworks right from the boat to welcome us to Charleston (really for opening night of the minor league baseball team)! Ready for a great week of friends, family and fun in Charleston!