Monday arrived and so did Marc & Michelle McCoy. The McCoy's are fellow river boaters from back home who were visiting the area escaping the cold and snow of Illinois. We had a nice visit and talked about their upcoming Great Loop excursion which they plan on starting next Fall. Hopefully we can hook up somewhere on the rivers as we come around on our Loop adventure. It was good to catch up on some of the news from home and also share a little part of our world here at Legacy.
Tuesday......I can't remember what we did!
Wednesday was highlighted by our sump pump going out. For Pam this is a traumatic experience. Even more so than scuffing a nail! For me it's a pain in the butt. The problem is that every drain on Tourist drains into a common sump tank and is then pumped overboard when the water level gets high enough to actuate the pump. If the pump doesn't work then the water runs through an overflow into an area under the bed in the third stateroom where most of it gets pumped out by another pump. I say most of it because there is always some that doesn't. It then sits there and starts to smell if it's not removed promptly.
Planning for this very event I had previously purchased a replacement pump of a somewhat different style. One that I thought would work better than the original. Ha! I was proven wrong when I started to undertake the repairs. It didn't fit right and would have required some pvc pipe and that blue pipe glue to cobble it together. Of course I had niether. That left us using the showers in the marina building and eating off paper plates. Not a problem for me...
Later in the day my parents showed up to pick us up and take us back to Bonita Springs for the night. This was already planned before the pump failure. We were positioning ourselves for the next day when we would be going to Ft. Lauderdale for the boat show portion of Trawlerfest.
Thursday we jumped in the car and headed East across Alligator Alley to the boaters mecca of Ft. Lauderdale. If you can't find it in Lauderdale, it hasn't been made. We arrived at Trawlerfest, got our wristbands, and started to roam the docks with the rest of the crowd. Keep in mind that this is a show designed for the slower paced boaters. You won't find the mini-skirted, high heeled, cleavage showing women at this show like you do at the big Ft. Lauderdale show in the fall. Nope. This one you'll find the capri pants, sweatshirt, and Croc wearing crowd wandering the docks. Not much for the eye but these are real boaters.
Enough about the crowd, these are the boats we liked. The 57' Marlow. 55' and 48' Kadey-Krogens. (If we win the lottery Pam & I will have a fight between the Marlow and the 55' Krogen!) Of course the 55' Fleming. We also viewed the 52' Krogen Express, a 56' Altima, 51' Ocean Alexander, 48' & 62' Offshore, 55' Hampton and the list goes on.
This is a great show in that it is geared to a specific crowd and thus a specific type/style of boat. The beauty is that the crowd is much, much smaller than the big shows which enables you to see the boats you want without standing in line.
This like any boat show we've been to brings out one of our pet peeves. If you're going to show a boat then CLEAN it before showing it! Without mentioning any brands or brokerages we found crumbs around the counters and cooking surfaces, dead bugs on the grill, tarnished burners on stoves that would require 5 minutes of time to polish, spilled red wine on the galley floor, water pooled inside a pilothouse door, and the topper was the broker who was talking to us with his mouth full while eating a sandwich and then leaving his dirty plate in the sink! I know Pam & I are extremely anal retentive but take some pride people! You don't wear tennis shoes with a tuxedo!
Before leaving Ft. Lauderdale we stopped at West Marine, Sailorman, and Boat Owners Warehouse to get a replacement pump and some other "needed" items including a new pair of flip-flops for Pam.
Friday the major accomplishment was installing the new pump and float switch in the sump and putting the boat back together afterwards. My reward was a great lobster dinner prepared by my personal chef!
Saturday I went to Walmart in the morning and started drinking in the afternoon. Pam had a leisurely morning and made a trip to Publix to get Sushi for dinner. Most of the day was spent on the dock agitating my fellow dockmates. I'm sure this had nothing to do with the alcohol!
Oh Hey! I just remembered Tuesday. It was rainy and overcast. I went to Chinatown and West Marine with Donnie from Kasey's Choice. In the evening we went out to dinner with Rich & Diane from M/V Ri-Di and got soaked walking from the parking lot to the boat upon our return.
Harbor Freight Tools (aka. Chinatown)
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