CHAPTER SIX – MAIDEN  VOYAGE OF SLOW MOTION

Monday morning, June 18, it was windy. The Admiral’s brow was furrowed. “I don’t know. We may not be able to leave for another week. This wind is supposed to be fierce for the next 5 days.” Patience is not my virtue, and the past 12 days, since my return to Slow Motion, I had been chomping at the bit to get this ship on the ICW. As I was ready to protest vehemently, that devilish smile crossed the Admiral’s face and I knew he was kidding. He saw my face redden – “Gotcha. We’re leaving.” Boy, were those happy words. I was ready to leave the bathroom and shower at Marina Bay, where everyone smokes despite the “no smoking” sign and everyone floods the bathroom floor with their showers. I was ready to leave the 90 plus degree weather with 90 plus humidity. I was a bit worn out from renting and turning in “stopgap” rent-a-cars. I had used up my Macy’s gift card and my West Marine gift card (thank you, colleagues!). Sure, Li’l Red’s Barbecue was perhaps the best barbecue this side of Kansas City and Primanti’s Pizza was delicious, but we’re not writing a restaurant blog here. We needed to travel.

Captain Ben arrived at 9 a.m. to guide us down the New River and under the first five bridges. While the wind was rather strong (20 knots), the day was perfect. There were snow white cumulus clouds with no threat of storm and the air on the water was refreshing. Ben took us to the ICW and then got up from the controls – “There you go, Art, take it from here.” It’s the first time I’ve seen Art reluctant to take control, but Ben out of the flying bridge and over to the side of the boat, readying himself for a jump onto a dock. I followed him to get a photo of the first person to jump ship on Slow Motion. So Art took control of the helm. It was an exhilarating moment to start up the ICW under our own steam (twin diesel engines), and then reality struck. The first bridge had much less clearance than the navigation books had led us to believe. Okay, we had to wait for its regular opening time (:15 and :45 past the hour). And the bridge master had to tell us to back up a little. We were a little too eager.

But we made it under that bridge and twenty- one more during the course of our 50 mile journey from Ft. Lauderdale to Palm Beach Gardens and Soverel Marina. We even made it through a very narrow opening between earth movers that appeared to be “walking on water”, as they prepared the foundations for a new bridge across the ICW. Our navigation books had listed an existing bridge at this location, Lantana, but that was gone, and we saw wall to wall (bank to bank) construction equipment blocking our path north. By this time, Art was feeling much more comfortable dealing with last minute surprises, and he maneuvered our 50 foot long, 14 foot wide Slow Motion through the narrowest of openings.  Whew – at that point we felt we had faced our toughest challenge of the first day. But there was an even tougher one to come.

We approached Soverel Marina around 5:15 p.m. This Marina is most like a bank parking lot or any lot with too many spaces and no room to turn around. We had been assigned slip 48. You got it, we had to maneuver past 47 slips crammed into a tiny space to get to slip 48. We had been told the slip was 17 feet 3 inches wide, and this seemed doable for our 14 foot wide boat. Well, slip 48 was just barely 14 feet wide, with pilings on both sides. With no hesitation, Art started backing into the slip. Fortunately, the pilings had some padding – rub rails – not very thick, but something between Slow Motion and wood. Next thing I knew, as I was standing in the cockpit on the stern yelling “go port!” or “go to the starboard”, Art had backed Slow Motion into the impossibly narrow slip. This may be the smallest slip we will ever have to fit into. I certainly hope so.

Short statement about the Soverel showers – almost bigger than the slip we’re in. And clean. And hot. Oh yeah.

What we learned in our maiden voyage was that  two of the four engine blowers were not working and something was making the transmission oil high-temp  light come on. So at 7 a.m. Art was on the phone to a local repair yard. Remarkably, someone answered, and we have an Aussie repairperson in our engine room as I write. The transmission needed oil – done. One of the forward blowers in the engine room is kaput – need a new one – on its way from Riviera Beach. As Butch used to say about the cost of their swimming pool, “ka-ching”, hit the cash register a few more times for Slow Motion. It’s 9:25 a.m. and we will be heading somewhere today. We are flexible, sort of, and learning to be more flexible. And we always have a credit card by our side, ready for the next unexpected, expected curve ball Slow Motion throws.

Speaking of curve balls, some of you have sent me emails about the perfect game thrown by Matt Cain. If any of you have the video, save it, I’d love to see it. I follow the games on my iphone, which means sometimes not getting a Giants result until the next day. Curse that 10:15 p.m. starting time! How about a stint in the minors for Lincecum? Cutting back on his marijuana intake? Letting his hair grow long again? Not throwing as many balls across the center of the plate? But every game there is some heartache along with the high points. Melky Cabrera making an out with the bases loaded – and the Giants losing that game – ouch! It’s torture time again.

Back to cruising – the scenery for the most part yesterday included mansions and McMansions. The one per cent is still doing very well in this part of the Florida Coast. And new McMansions are being built. Not too much wildlife, but we did catch a glimpse of perhaps a porpoise in front of Slow Motion. Captain Ben says manatees are so dumb they bump right into your boat, but no manatee bumping so far. Not even a sighting. We cruised past the famous Peanut Island, and I got a rash – kidding! It’s supposed to be the “hot” party place on the weekend. It was dead yesterday, just one raft converted into a grass roofed tiki bar trying to stay afloat. We saw a few  brown pelicans on a bridge abutment. Art said not to forget the bikini clad female humans in a boat that momentarily diverted him from piloting duties.

Next time I’ll report on the rocking and rolling of Slow Motion whenever a rude speedster/gas guzzler overtakes us without any notice or warning. It’s a pretty good ride – kids will love it.