it seems like every time we come to Ft. Lauderdale, we think we are going to be here for a short time and we end up staying much longer than planned.  This is another one of those times.  We have been here three weeks with no end in sight.  Above, Daisy waits for Mark to get up in the morning and take her for a walk. Delays don’t matter to Daisy as long as she gets fed and walked.  However, if she knew she could be in Charleston by now, with a dog park across the street from the marina, she’d be anxious to get out of here too.

The generator repairman came back on Monday with another repairman and after two days they discovered that the problem was the stator, the stationary part of the rotor system.  They removed it and took it to a shop to get rewound.  We were told they would bring it back today to complete the repair.  They didn’t come or call, so we phoned their shop and surprise, surprise, surprise.  They won’t be back until next Tuesday.  We can’t leave the slip because we have no engine power without the genset.  In addition, they are now trying to get out of the warranty, although this is clearly a warranty issue.  It could end up costing us $1400 for the repair and who knows how much for the labor time the repairmen were here, at $100 an hour.

This is just another case of anyone and everyone in the marine business assuming they can use the old B.O.A.T (Bring Out Another Thousand) strategy.  We’ve found so many cases of overcharging on anything “marine.”  We objected to the slowness of the warranty repairs when we first moved aboard Seas the Day.  The response was “It’s a boat.”  No....it’s poor customer service and we ARE the customers.  Things that would never be accepted in any other repairs are standard operating procedure in the marine industry.  When we contacted several carpenters for estimates on building the office in the master hull, we got prices of $9000 and $10,000.  This was for a few shelves and a couple of drawers.  Mark did it all for under $1000 for materials which included having a non-marine carpenter build the drawers.  Unfortunately, marine carpenters regularly worked on megayachts where apparently price is no object.  For us, it’s the MAIN object.

We recently bought something that should help us communicate better when anchoring. They are called Mariner 500 headsets.  We bought walkie talkies for this purpose but they are awkward to use when one’s hands aren’t free to hold and talk into the device.  Adding a wireless microphone/earpiece could help, but you still have this walkie talkie to deal with in a pocket or hooked onto a piece of clothing.  The headsets were recommended to us by Bill and Judy (Jubilee).  We haven’t anchored yet since getting the headsets but it appears they will work well.  We use hand signals quite successfully when I am dropping or raising the anchor and Mark is at the helm, but sometimes things get difficult.  The joke goes, “We’re not arguing....we’re anchoring.”  At the very least, now no one else in the anchorage will hear the “arguing.”

Philip, our friend from England,  is here and he came over for dinner on Tuesday.  That was fun, as we always enjoy seeing him.  Philip and Alison were the first cruisers we met when we moved aboard Seas the Day.  They were at the slip next to us on Pascana. We’ve kept in contact and have seen them several times over the past two years whenever our paths crossed. 

We also finally got to meet 420 owners Jen and Gregg with son Quinn.  We’ve e-mailed each other over the past two years, as they purchased Mirasol about the same time we got Seas the Day.  They just returned from the Caribbean and stopped in Ft. Lauderdale for some boat work.  It was great to spend some time with them.  They are now on their way to Charleston, but will be gone by the time we get there.  They (and Rick and Linda on Lagoon 420 Makeitso) recommended the Maritime Center in Charleston and are the reason we went there last year and will return this year.

Mark has gotten some chores done since we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale.  He finished sanding the etching film off the windows and has painted around the borders.  He fixed the air conditioner in the salon which just needed the filter cleaned, but as always it took awhile to discover the cause of the problem.  He fixed two toilets and has worked on the air conditioner in one of the guest cabins which has never worked.  He also cleaned the dinghy, not an easy job, and it now looks new again.  We had no choice when we called repairmen for the generator as it is is a problem Mark couldn’t have fixed.  If we had to call repairmen for every problem, we would be forever under the control of their schedules.  We’d also be out a lot more money. 

We will be here for at least six more days.  It would be fine if we had other things to do in Ft. Lauderdale and/or if it wasn’t 90+ degrees and very humid so we can barely be outside.  While we don’t have a “schedule,” our insurance carrier requires us to be in South Carolina by June 15.  All parts of the policy are in effect after that time except damage done in a “named storm.”  No storms are in the forecast and it’s a little early for hurricanes (although there have been hurricanes in June) so we feel fairly safe until we can cross the border into South Carolina a few days after the 15th.