“It’s always something!” Bill said the morning of our departure. While he was inside the convenience store paying for gas someone sideswiped his car and left the driver side mirror dangling. As some of you may know, earlier this year the right side of Bill’s Ford Focus was ripped open like a sardine can when an 18-wheeler decided that “bigger” meant the right to be a road bully. “Get out the duct tape again, honey!”
IAS: Act Two
The entry into the well is not for the faint at heart. Since marina help managed to scrap the side of Pure Grace last fall when pulling her into dry dock for the season, Bill decided to drive her into the well himself. We left the fenders hanging to provide cushion against the concrete, however, against my protestations, the marina help pulled them off, citing the possibility of getting them tangled in the lift straps. Cr-u-nch! Here we go again! That little mishap was good for $350 off the $800 lift fee but we’ll have to replace a couple feet of stainless steel trim.
Bill takes Pure Grace over to the well for the lift out.
The point of impact going into the well.
On the travel lift.
Being lowered onto the flatbed. The young man in front is the travel lift operator,
which is maneuvered remotely.
It took six men to lift the fly bridge wall down to the main deck.
IAS: Act Three
Barely a few miles from the marina it happened. As I followed Bill and the 8-foot U-Haul south on Route 28 toward downtown I saw a woman in a Honda CRV merge from the left into Bill’s lane. As he jerked to the right the U-Haul started to swing and hit the jersey barrier. Unbelievably, the woman kept going so I hit the gas and followed her, honking and screaming “Pull over!” Even as I drove along side her, she was oblivious and kept going. Some guy in a pickup truck in front of me saw what was going on and moved in front of her, slowing down until we boxed her in. By the time I got to her my adrenaline was up and, ashamed to say, I gave her a tongue-lashing (although, curse-word free) until she was in tears. Bill finally caught up to us about the time I had my arm around her shoulder and was apologizing over her apologies. Luckily Bill’s car escaped further damage but there was a little bit on the already road-worn U-Haul.
We finally left Pittsburgh during rush hour and only made it as far as Beckley, WV by 9:30 p.m. (about 250 miles). Wednesday evening we stopped in Savannah and will be in Jacksonville sometime Thursday morning, with Pure Grace arriving on Friday morning.
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