First the good------We took off for FLA on Monday and had perfect weather and light traffic all day, 700 miles to Tallahassee where we spent the night after enjoying delicious fried chicken and broiled rainbow trout for dinner at the infamous Cracker Barrell. Next day, more good weather and light traffic and arrived in Ft. Myers around 3 PM on Tues. Our broker is located there and we needed to meet with him and sign off on a few more papers before we took possession of the boat (located in Tavernier on Key Largo. Diane arranged for us to stay at a beautiful new Marriot property right on the Caloosahatchee River at the City Marina. See below for the view out our window. Next day on to Tavernier.
(Sorry---for some reason couldn't download the picture---I'll figure it out)
Here's where the frustration begins. As we approached Tavernier we called ahead to the boat company that sold us the boat---Yacht Works. I was informed that there were still some issues with the repairs that we had required based on the boat survey tat we did a couple weeks earlier. Namely--they were waiting on delivery of a new raw water pump for the air conditioning system--thus, no staying aboard. And a new volt meter at the upper helm had not yet been installed. All the other systems, we were assured, had been addressed (including the toilet system and the sump pump that drains the shower ((had been draining directly into the bilge)). When we got to the boat we were met by Ryan who went over all the repairs with us to our (then) satisfaction. We booked a room at another Marriott for the night expecting to be able to move onto the boat the next day----NOT---. But, while we were sitting on our patio at the hotel a guy walked by and asked us how long we were planning on staying. Turns out he had his room booked for 3 days but had to head home right away for a family emergency. Marriott wouldn't refund his money and he offered us his room for $100 bucks for the next 2 days. Turns out he's a Circuit Court judge in Kentucky--nice honorable guy---so we took him up on the offer and moved into their room after arranging for new linens. This worked out perfectly as it gave us a couple days to clean the boat and move all our "stuff" in.
Here's where the really bad stuff begins. One of the items on our punch list was the malfunctioning engine control unit on the fly bridge. Ryan assured us it had been fixed--simply a loose wiring connection. We went up to check it out but it didn't work. Ryan called out for his fix-it guy who had "fixed" it previously. While he was messing around with it the boat (at the dock) suddenly went into gear and the engines roared in forward, straining all the dock lines. It took about 30 seconds for them to shut down the engines. Very Scary!!! The next morning a guy from a local diesel repair shop came and determined that the control unit was faulty and Ryan ordered a new unit---still has not been installed but expected to arrive tomorrow. We are cautiously hopeful that this will fix the problem---can't leave the dock until it's fixed.
Meanwhile we're moved onto the boat at the dock and then the following litany begins:
1. The forward A/C unit quits working---fixed quickly by a boat mechanic that lives on his boat here at the marina.
2. Yesterday, after using the head (fortunately just a #1) I smelled something fowl and discovered that the pipe from the pumping unit that carries the waste to the holding tank was cracked and the "contents" from the toilet were spewing into the bilge. Immediately shut down the system and called Ryan. Still have not heard back from him but I'm confident he will get it fixed. No toilet use right now so we have to walk to the marina facilities.
3. After showering, Diane noticed that the carpet in the master stateroom was wet. On inspection, I found that the sump pump for the shower was working only intermittently and the reservoir was filling up and spilling over. On further inspection I found that the drain line from the reservoir was split allowing water to shoot up. Thought that's what was soaking the carpet. Still unsure. Will address this with Ryan when I hear from him.
4. The anchor light doesn't work. Gotta have it for when we spend nights "on the hook". This was supposedly fixed by them.
5. Before we got to the boat apparently the generator did not work, resulting in them replacing the charging unit with a new one. Haven't tested this yet but will today while Ryan is here.
6. Turned on the instruments yesterday and depth at the dock was measuring 32 feet on our depth sounder (the depth at the dock is only about 6-8 feet). Gonna have to check that out.
7. That area of wet carpet continues to grow despite not having used the sump pump. I think it's the condensation from the forward A/C--(This is supposed to, also, drain into the sump reservoir and be pumped out overboard) I think the drain hose is either plugged up or not connected (They had to move the A/C unit to do some fiberglass repair in the area where it is located--maybe didn't reconnect the drain?)
Thus---FRUSTRATION---These guys seem honorable enough and I fully expect they will make everything good. It's just awfully frustrating when all of this was to have been taken care of before we even arrived.
I'm hopeful that my next post will be a bit more cheerful. Actually, we're doing just fine despite some inconveniences and we know eventually all these things will be behind us and we can move to our "home marina" by this week-end where we can settle in. More later
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