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It is the last hours of this three day boat delivery. The rain has stopped. The setting sun lights the North Carolina sand dunes in that beautiful glow we all know from evenings everywhere. 

It is just Ritche Coad and myself. Four hours of boat driving followed by four hours of boat cleaning, eating, showering and, when all of that is done, a tad of sleeping. And do it over and over again as we tag each other “it” around the clock. 

I will never complain. It is an honor to deliver someone’s boat to them when others cannot or will not and to make the boat more presentable and seaworthy in the process. I take pride in overcoming the obstacles. 

This trip was no exception. The owners, successful, young business guys, got stiffed by a captain and a mechanic. The costs were rising geometrically. When we got the call we dropped everything and brought a mechanic, the parts, and the tools. 

Our mechanic, Robert Hummel (Bobby “The Wrench” Hummel) got the big diesel engine thermostats changed, the boat systems gone through thoroughly, and the bilges cleaned so the limber holes would drain. And we were off. Out into the Atlantic from St Augustine. 

We took a beating. Soaked to the bone and so covered in salt it was like I had rolled my neck in sand. 

Then the alarms. Water in the fuel. Low oil pressure. Temperature. 

We turned for St. Mary’s Inlet. On the way in a stunning full moon shone in our wake. 

Just past the top secret submarine base everyone knows about we checked the fluids and fuel filters. All was well. Electricity and its younger, nerdy brother, Electronics do not like salt water. 

Crab Traps

We stayed on the inside and ran through the night. I am not a spiteful man, but on a midnight watch, in a tight channel, at low tide, running between exposed oyster beds you think of inventive ways to hurt and harass the thoughtless bastards who set a thousand crab traps in the center of the navigation channel.

Crab traps are wire mesh boxes set on the seabed with a rope running to the surface to a small, usually dark and hard to see, barnacle encrusted buoy or float. If you run over one the line wraps around your propeller and shaft and kills the engine, damages the boat or drags along behind like an anchor. The only way to get the crab trap off is to dive in the dark, turbid waters and cut off the line underwater. 

I want to tie the evil blue crab fishermen’s shoes together and watch them trip. To go into their houses at night and place objects with sharp corners in the path to their bathrooms. I want their pubic hairs to get caught in their blue jeans’ zippers and hurt. I want the four teeth they have to ache. Yet, I am not a spiteful person. Crab traps just suck. 

Boat Delivery

Back to the delivery. We stopped for fuel near Savannah. Two boat lengths away from the dock in a rushing tide we lost control of the throttles and shifters. We regained the starboard controls and pushed sideways with one engine into deeper and open water.

Reminiscent of a Todd Derr or Todd Hudson trip, literally anyone who’s ever been with me, we figured out that Ritche could climb down into the engine room that is tighter than a crawl space and over ride the controls when I need them. 

That hence has been his trip. 

“Ritche, I need throttle.”

Down he goes into the hot box and up comes the engine RPMs. 

“Ritche, I need to go to idle.”

Down he…you get the picture. 

But it’s about over. In the wee hours of the morning we will park this girl I am falling in love with. I feel like a desperate high school kid. Give me three days with any boat and I’m smitten like that school Junior on his second date at second base. 

We will give her a final wash, pump out her waste tanks, kiss her goodbye, and make our way back to Florida. 

It has been a great delivery. 

*Did you know CruiseCocoa does boat deliveries, vessel management, crew complimenting, and operator training? We do. And we can do it for you or your clients. We’d love to serve you. 

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