Cool Change Sailing

I never imagined after closing on my boat last January 25th, it would take this long to have it transported to Ohio. I’ve been patiently waiting for all the dominoes to finally fall into place so I could reach out to the trucking company and schedule the pick-up date. And, had it not been for a phone call I made yesterday, chances are the boat would still be sitting in CT for weeks (months?) on end!

As far back as mid-April, I called the marina and asked when they would put the boat in the water. This first step was necessary to remove the mast and standing rigging–a must for transporting it by land. The marina manager, Kip, said he could not put the boat into the water until he first finds someone who can remove the custom canvas cover and metal framework beneath it. No way I could allow that little detail to prevent forward progress so I drove back to CT on Friday, April 21st and began that task myself.

When I arrived late Friday afternoon, the weather was perfect and completely dry. This seemed like the ideal time to remove the canvas because if I waited until the morning, it’s likely we would have dew and moisture all over it which would prevent me from taking it off then. If the canvas was stored while wet, it would shrink and never fit correctly in the future. I grabbed a ladder, climbed aboard and began unzipping and untying the various places the canvas was connected to the boat.

Within the next two hours, that portion of the job was completed and I placed the three huge sections of canvas into the back of the Penske Transit van to keep them safe.

The following morning, I began the more time-consuming job of disconnecting and disassembling the metal framework that supported the canvas covers. Occasionally, I ran into a snag as a section confused me…but soon figured out how to take it apart without too much difficulty. The previous owners had agreed to meet me at the boat that Saturday morning to “help me take off the canvas” but by the time they arrived, the entire job was finished. Although they did bring a hose to connect water to the engine intake which allowed us to fire up the engine for the first time. She started instantly and I watched as the former green anti-freeze began gushing out, soon replaced by fresh water. No need to worry about any more freezes now that it’s late April.

To their credit, they also brought me several items that they’d intended to leave with the boat: two new dock lines and two new fenders to cushion the hull while docked. Also, the wife noticed that the plastic utensils (which look silver) appeared soiled so she took them home to wash them, and brought me beautifully cleaned “silverware”! This was going beyond the call of duty and I was very grateful for their thoughtfulness.

With my job completed, all we needed now was to determine what date I could instruct the trucking company to pick her up and bring to Ohio. I met with the marina manager, Kip, and he said “I’ll try to get it into the water as soon as possible and have the crane remove the mast and rigging afterwards”. Knowing, I cannot not schedule a pickup date without the boat being prepared, I looked forward to hearing from Kip soon so I could do the next step.

Weeks went by and I hadn’t heard from him. By week three, I called him and left a voicemail message asking if he knew when the mast would be taken down. He did not return my call so the following day, I sent him a text message instead, thinking that THAT will get a response.

I was wrong. He was still dead silent on the matter of removing the mast. I was going to call again the following week but my plans were totally interrupted when I learned about the death of one my dearest college friends in CA. I and six other guys from college all arrived in Carmel, CA and were honored to be the pallbearers in the memorial service. It was a real emotional roller coaster filled with laughter and tears, as none of us expected to lose one of our friends so young.

I returned home last Sunday and once again I called Kip. He still ignored my calls. Frustrated, yesterday I called the original boat broker, Susan, to get her advice on what I should do. She was shocked to her core to discover that the boat was not already at Lake Erie where I’d been busily preparing it for my future. She drove immediately to the marina but since it was lunchtime, Kip was not there. An hour later, she returned and confronted him about this grotesque delay.

His response? “Oh, I’ve been waiting to hear from Mr. Cox about what day the trucking company will arrive so we know when to have the boat ready”.

Uh huh. Ignoring such a blatant lie, Sue learned that if I call a trucking company and tell Kip when it will arrive, he’ll have the boat ready. I had expected the boat to be transported as early as May 8th and if he hadn’t told me to postpone calling the trucking company until HE said it was ready, I could have already done this a month ago.

I called Safe Harbor Hauling and they said the soonest they can arrive in CT would be 6/21/23 with a delivery date of 6/22/23 in Port Clinton, OH–a destination they’re already familiar with, having delivered previous boats to the same location.

I called Kip and told him of my conversation with the trucking company. He said that date will be perfect and as he spoke, he said he was currently on my boat and disconnecting the turnbuckles–the devices which secure the rigging cables to the deck. I immediately realized he could have done this same thing with just a moment’s notice…and certainly it never required me to wait and extra six weeks.

I called Sue back and thanked her for her assist. She wished that she had known earlier that I wasn’t getting cooperation from the marina but I assumed that all the locals were getting priority treatment, pushing my job further back down the low-priority list. I was unaware of how quick and easy the job actually is/was.

My final call was to Brand’s Marina in Port Clinton. Kim looked on her schedule and was happy to announce that they had no other deliveries scheduled so it’s a perfect date to lift it off the truck.

Once it arrives, the real work begins…and now I’ll have to work harder and faster to accomplish all of the necessary tasks before fall arrives. The idea of sailing around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in October is not very appealing, but if such a later departure becomes necessary, I’ve already got all the necessary gear to be comfortable and safe in difficult conditions.

The starting date is finally getting closer.