3300 miles there and back

3300 miles

7 states

1 flat tire

1 7 mile bridge

A couple weeks ago, the spouse had decided to fly down and see what jobs on the boat could be done and to check/communicate with Boat George.

When the weather forecast turned south, I dumped the dogs in the kennel, loaded up my Sailrite machine and headed south.

Nice drive also, the way back got a bit hairy, but more on that later.

So, I managed to drive 1300 of the miles without a mishap, even following a storm front that left 5 inches of snow in Northern Alabama and Mississippi--and they were NOT cool with that.

However, in my opinion, they were, because of all the cars and remains of cars I found on the side of the road, people had built a snowman while waiting for help. I thought that was super cool.

Finally made it down to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up husband at airport, and handed over the keys to him.  We merrily drive along....stop for a rest break.... enjoy the beautiful view.....and 60 miles outside of Key West, I see the car in front of us hit something in the road and send it flying.

It was a screwdriver.....and I could not articulate, TIM THERE'S A SCREWDRIVER HEADING TOWARD US! in the time it took for Tim to hit said screwdriver and puncture our tire.  His first reaction was to play it cool....it's all good.

But then he asked, do you have a tire pressure monitor display on your Jeep, Yes, Yes I do.  So I show him how to display it, so he can watch the tire pressure go down, down, down...

After a few quick animated discussions on whether to stop and change or try to make it to
 ?somewhere? in Marathon before the tire completely crapped out, I pointed out, FRIDAY AFTERNOON, FLORIDA KEYS, WHO WILL BE WORKING?  Point taken, we find a place to pull over to change, because the 7 mile bridge would be coming up, and that would have been bad.

We made it to the boat, after having a quick pitstop to get the adrenaline down and enjoy sunset (the goal was to make it Key West for sunset, but when we had the flat--Tim says: We lost the moon. [NASA Apollo reference for all you geeks]).  I've mentioned it before, but Lazy Days South in Marathon has an awesome food/beverage happy hour.

Sooo--heading back.  Tim leaves from Key West, I hang out for a few more days, finish alterations on a mattress cover to fit the V Berth and shower curtain for the front head.  I had to claim mercy on the headsail after I saw what needed to be done, needed somebody with a real sail loft to help.

Finally start heading home, I HATE driving in Miami, which normally I can avoid by driving the Turnpike (and around Ft. Laud/Miami it's all pay by plate, so they will send you a bill, sweet), but I had to drop our sail off (nobody worth their salt to do our job in the Keys--and we had that backed up by locals), so I spent 2 hours cussing a blue streak while getting to the sail loft.  I'm sure they saw my Kansas tags and thought easy prey, but I've driven all over the world, so bring it on.

All is well, until the end of second night when I've caught up with the second snow storm to hit N. Miss. and S. Tenn.  WOW.  Bless those Mississippians heart, but at a certain point, being too gracious and careful will get everybody killed.

Also, their method of driving at night when it's a bit snowy....high beams on, 40 mph on the interstate (mind you they had it cleared off), and slam on the breaks if you see the tiniest smidgen of ice.

After ice skating through Memphis with the Jeep, the rest of the trip was uneventful and returned to balmy spring like weather in Kansas.

Window/Port work on Elysium

After a good steady squall through Key West, we discovered that Elysium has a pretty hefty leak in her saloon windows.  After conversations with the fellow Southerly owners across the pond, we determined we were part of the lucky bunch that had inadequate sealant/installation of our glass.

We need to rebed these suckers pronto, so start dispensing more BOAT units to find a repair person.

As I mentioned before we did find a person to do it, and he's been METICULOUS.  Totally against the normal Keys Disease help you find.  So Boat George pulled the first window--which was problematic--to find that it had been rebedded before, but poorly.  So we call the previous owner with a WTF?  He said yes he had it done.

Not very well, it appears.  Our guy discovers after he cleaned it all off that the glass is fitting almost EXACTLY into the cutout it was designed for-which made he and Tim go UUUUUGGGGGGHHHH.

What? What!  So George and my husband (who restored cars in a previous life) explained that if you don't provide a bit of a gap, the sealant can't seal.  Well, duh!  So what do we do?

We need to grind off some of the glass--okay, what do you need I'll go get it.  NOPE.  It's tempered glass, you shouldn't really do that to tempered glass because it can shatter.

Oooooohhhhh.  UUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!

George starts exploring options, he thinks he finds one, but when he takes our window to show the guy, the guy goes UGGGGGGHHHHH, rounded corners?  $$$$$, ain't gonna be what I quoted you. George says, well crap.

Long story short--we finally found somebody that will grind down our tempered windows--they've done it before. Cool.  But they only do it on Fridays.

Finding somebody to do jobwork in the Keys is right up Bob Bitchin's ally--is it an ordeal or an adventure?  We have entertained ourselves with it endlessly--poor George has been our middle man, and he's done well.

George had to cover our window, couldn't leave a gaping hole, so he custom fitted some plywood in there for us.

Elysium looking a little Whisky Tango, renamed her temporarily Ellie Mae.

So, on Friday, the windows were successfully shaved down so that George could work his magic.  And that he did as you see below.

The shim is to allow the window to rest on it, so that sealant can get around the entire window.
Thus, properly embedding it.

Adding sealant.

Right before window is placed.

After window is placed.

Repeating process down below.

After it is done down below.

Check that off our list!