Pink Shell to Winter Park

Eileen’s sister Pam drove over from Aventura horse races to meet us halfway for lunch at Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston on the OWW.

Pink Shell resort departure day means lots of logistics challenges. The trailer storage lot and launch ramp at another marina 2 miles away don’t open until 0800, so we chose the free breakfast buffet for only the second time (though we took a small bowl of fresh fruit each day). Drove the truck over, hitched up, tire pressures all good, towed the trailer to the ramp marina and parked, got a Lyft back to the Pink Shell, checked out, cruised downriver to the ramp marina, backed the rig down a very difficult S shaped path to the shallow ramp with a massive hole that must be avoided between forklifts taking boats in and out next to us, towed back to the storage lot to rinse the brakes and reconfigure and finally got underway at 1230. The Pink Shell dockmaster didn’t charge us anything for five weeks of shore power. I-4 is always a nightmare but we got into the Hilton before dark. I chose it because it has a massive parking lot on Google Earth, but it was mostly closed off for constructing a new parking garage…oops. A manager came out and directed us into the staff parking lot across the street, which worked out well. The original plan was to get to Ed Stone and launch and check in at Hontoon Landing before 4PM, but that would not have worked. This is our first night off the boat since Jan 10.

What broke:

The cab reported a failure of the right trailer turn signal. Turns out the white ground wire had broken off at the ring terminal at the frame stud. I didn’t have a ring terminal on the boat, so we MacGyvered stripping the end around the nut.

The front portion of the bunk slick on one side had fractured and fell off, leaving the heads of 4 screws protruding ½ inch where they could have scraped the hull. Luckily we had a Phillips screwdriver big enough to back them out.

Somewhere along the way we lost a hub dust cap, which I don’t think is an urgent issue but will ask the hive about.

The berth Marinebeam LED array lights quit working, but are too bright so we usually use a small 4D lantern. That turned out to be a blown fuse. I really like the Blue Seas EZ-ID fuses that include an LED that lights up when the fuse is blown.

I’m glad Eileen was reluctant to make it to Hontoon landing before 4PM! Hope to try launching at the BYC ramp tomorrow.

NEBOLINK report here:

https://reports.nebo.global/c39be3b5-c00c-4ce8-…En savoir plus