We headed out early the next morning to Fort Myer. We left before Jeff got there even though it was still a little breezy. As a result, we lost a line that got caught between the electric box and the piling, but we got out of the slip and back on the intracoastal. In the Cruising Guide Book that we were using, it said that Marinatown Yacht Harbor had some good repair facilities, so we called and they told us they had room for us. It was a little out of our way, but we really wanted the radio and the windlass fixed.
The approach to Marinatown was nerve-wracking. We were coming off the Caloosahatchee River (Quick, say that one three time fast. Actually, say it one time and you deserve a prize!) , which is a very wide river, something like the Potomac. Actually, if you follow the waterway it leads to the famous and feared Lake Okeechobee and is a shortcut to the east coast of Florida. Anyway, there were private aids to navigation taking us out of the main channel and off to the side of the river. That, in itself was nerve-wracking. However, this particular set of red and green markers took us to the side of the river. I looked around and didn’t see any damn marina, just shoreline. Ann was very cool about it and said, “I think the marina is over there behind that piece of land.” So, here I am in a 52 foot boat, not more than 10 meters from land on my port side, turning to the right. We followed the channel markers and saw that we needed to make another 90 degree turn to right. By this time I had reconciled myself to the fact we would go aground, so I was moving very slowly. As I looked back and saw that we could no longer in sight of anyone on the main channel of the river, I wondered that when (not if) we went aground, how in the name of Heaven Towboat US (the savior of many a boater – the folks who will come give you a tow to become unstuck), would ever find us. Then, suddenly in the distance we could see the piers and pilings of a marina – but there weren’t any boats tied up. As we went a little further I saw a billboard saying that the marina was owned by the bank and was for sale. Great, don’t tell me that our marina had just gone belly-up. Just a little further, however, and we saw some pretty good-sized boats. It turned out that Marinatown was well hidden, but it was, in fact, a working marina. Again, a great backing job by yours truly and a great tying up job by Ann and we were in, safe and secure.
The first thing we did was to get in touch with Dan, the maintenance person. He seemed very competent and was convinced that he could help us with our problems. However, work as he might – and he worked a lot and very hard – he was unable to beat the windlass. At some points it seemed as if Dan had taken it on as a personal crusade; he was determined to take that windlass apart or he was going to die trying. Eventually, however, he determined that he needed a special tool. When we told him after two days that we were heading out the following day, he admitted defeat. Although he charged us a little for his time – remember he worked over the weekend and missed Sunday football—it wasn’t nearly the amount of time he had spent on our projects. Moreover, he had helped us with a little inverter issue that had come up while he was here, and was able to tell us definitely that the microphones were not the root of our radio problem (I had assumed they were).
There was some good news though. First, within about a 100 yard stretch of waterfront, Marinatown had three restaurants. What makes that significant is that they were all VERY competitive. They were all very much like the bar/restaurants you find on the Chesapeake waterfront, though these places are probably a little more bar than restaurant. One day after a walking trip to Walgreens and Office Depot, we stopped at one (Big Al’s I think) and had two beers each and some onion rings. The total cost was $13.48. Try finding a deal like that in DC! Another time we went to lunch at one of the restaurants/bars that advertised mussels (and you know how Ann likes mussels). We had two pounds of mussels with three drinks – and they were surprisingly very good! The total was less than $20.
Our final adventure in Fort Myer was our first refueling. Just before pulling into the fuel dock I thought I heard something not-quite-right with the port engine. Oh no, not again! But after filling up (about 142 gallons), for the big trip “outside” I started the engines, putted around the harbor a little – and heard nothing amiss. So I attributed the problem to an overactive imagination. I hope, I hope I hope.
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