Battle with a Plastic Bag

Wednesday morning we took our time leaving Ft. Lauderdale because we were planning to go only 17 miles to Boca Raton. But the best laid plans... Within 2 miles we hit something in the middle of the channel and it caused a serious vibration. We limped into Sands Harbor Marina to check it out. As soon as we stopped the boat a plastic bag floated up behind us. Just to be on the safe side, we had a diver go down and check the prop and shaft. Once again, God was looking after us because there was no damage to either.

We did discover that the forward/reverse shifter on the steering column had cracked. Seahawk is an old gal so getting parts for her can be a challenge. The local West Marine didn't have the lever in stock but assured us they could get it in by noon on Thursday. Once more we found ourselves in the best place to be in a bad situation. Since we had a broken shifter we decided we'd better stay put for the night.

Sands Harbor is a resort hotel and marina. We signed in at the marina office to spend the night. They gave us a “happy bag” full of lots of useless stuff but it did have one complementary meal at their restaurant. We used it for a late lunch/early dinner then called it a day.

Since the weather was quite pleasant we sat outside until well after dark. Caught a shot of the Goodyear blimp.

Here's s shot of the hotel with a few boats in the foreground.

And here's one of a neighboring boat. By the way, out boat was the smallest in the marina.