Thanksgiving Week, 2014

Thanksgiving Week, 2014

We spent a lot of time waiting for parts to arrive and for work on the boat to commence. A couple of fun things happened Thanksgiving week, though. And a few not so fun.
 

The first fun thing was Monday, the 24th, when one of the owners of Turner Marine ran down the docks, thumping on boats, yelling that the shrimp boat was in. 

So, many of us boat owners grabbed Ziplocs, Kroger bags, and whatever else would hold shrimp, and headed for the end of the pier at the end of the road.  Sure enough, there was a shrimp boat that could have been right out of a reality show.  Craggy guys, beat up boat, and tons of shrimp.  The local restaurants had already pulled up their trucks and toted off their allotment.  Then the marina folks brought their bags and assorted containers.  The cost was 2# for $10.  But who was measuring?  

Shrimp anyone?

Ready for the cleaning


We bought roughly two pounds, removed the heads, tossing them back into the bay for other critters to eat.  We ate the sweetest shrimp we have ever had, and the next night had Shrimp Caesar Salad.    MMM Good.

Wednesday brought yet another trip to the Urgent Care, hopefully to get the stitches out of Kathy's lip.  We are getting to be very good friends with Dr. Jimmy, chief and only doctor at the Urgent Care. It turns out that it was just a check to see how the lip was healing, NOT to remove the stitches.  We had to wait for Friday for that!

But while visiting with Dr. Jimmy, Kathy thought she would mention that her side still hurt, ALOT, from when she had taken the unexpected dive between the boat and the dock.  Dr. Jimmy thought X-Rays were in order.  Turns out a rib was broken.  Also turns out that they don't do anything about it but send you away with a list of things to not do...like bend, stretch, pull lines or stress her right side.  We should have brought in a picture of the knuckle dock!  Tough duty on a boat!

The next neat thing was a Thanksgiving lunch hosted by the Turners the day before Thanksgiving.  They deep fried a few turkeys, roasted a few more, and provided dressing and mashed potatoes.  The rest of us donated cranberries, wild rice, sweet potatoes. A dozen pies, and other things.  It was fun, albeit, cold outside.  But then, what Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t get served a bit cold!

Waiting for Thanksgiving Dinner

At least 50 folks attended.
 

Thanksgiving Day was low key.  We caught up with family, and had Jiffy Pop popcorn for supper.

Friday brought Kathy's last visit to Dr. Jimmy at Urgent Care...stiches came out!  Now, in about 4-8 weeks, the rib will heal, and she will be back to normal...or as normal as she gets.

Also on Friday, the boat was finally pulled out of the water to get the things done that needed to be done!  With any luck, she would be back in the water by the end of the day, and we could start getting ready to head across Mobile Bay!! 

 

Sea Fever pulled out of the water

 

We wanted to power-wash the bottom to remove any fresh-water slime and remains of Zebra mussels still clinging to the hull after our long journey south. We also likely needed a bit of touch-up to the bottom paint. In addition, Tim wanted Turners to investigate a strange vibration and noise we occasionally encountered. Assuming the noise/vibration was nothing serious, we figured all of this could be done in one day. Two days tops.

Kathy let Tim supervise the boat repairs, and went to the Estuariam of Dauphin Island with Elizabeth and Daniel from Brisa.  The Estuarium is an interactive museum of aquatic animal and plant life of the Mobile Bay and Gulf Coast area.  The Estuary itself exists because of how those waters come together.
 

The Estuarium was fun.  Tim, back at Turners, didn’t have quite as much fun.  When we returned, Sea Fever was still up on the hard (out of the water) and supported by jack stands.  The jack stands meant she wasn’t going back in the water right away as we had hoped.

Sea Fever on jack stands

 It turns out that the noise/vibration was caused by a loose prop-shaft strut. The prop-shaft strut is a bronze support designed to hold the propeller shaft in place while it rotates. The strut is not supposed to move. Ours did. Quite a bit actually, and that caused the shaft to vibrate when the engine was in gear. This is not an ideal situation and needed to be fixed.

We weren’t sure what the fix required but were told that on Monday “a guy” would stop by and let us know and how much it will cost.

Two things were clear though. First, we would be here another week at least and second, Tim had a bunch of work to do before “the guy” got here on Monday.

 

The support strut sticks out of the bottom of the boat but it is anchored in copious amounts of fiberglass inside the hull. Unfortunately, the inside part is located under the newly-installed hot water heater and other assorted equipment.  

So, a few things need to be removed to reach it. Things like the water heater, all the water hoses, two bilge pumps, the fresh water pump, the fresh water system accumulator (don’t ask) and the shelf on which the water heater resides.

We decided to stay at a motel for the week because once all the equipment was removed, it had to go somewhere and inside the cabin was the only somewhere we had available.  Also the boat would have no water and required boarding via a 10’ step ladder.

Staircase to heaven

Tim made reservations at the La Quinta hotel in Mobile.  The hotel was a nice change with its king size bed and a shower/bathroom that only the two of us shared. We even had a TV!  This was the first time we had slept off the boat since we left Lake City on September 7th.  Kathy believes it is also the first time she had checked into a hotel with her stuff in plastic bags in a very long time!

Tim got all the stuff torn out of the boat on Saturday.  Since he had installed it all just a few short months ago, it was an easier task to remove. Small consolation!
 

On Sunday, we plan to head over to Fairhope, AL.  We had planned to anchor there for a few days, but with the luxury of a rental car and time on our hands, we plan to drive over there, and see the sights. And perhaps do a little Christmas shopping to get in the holiday spirit!