An Update from Fort Lauderdale

I must apologize for not updating the blog sooner; however I have been under the weather lately.  Not Coronavirus, but I sure was thrown under the bus for a bit.  Being a bit concerned to go to a minute clinic here in Fort Lauderdale with all this Covid-19 stuff, I probably ended up worse off than normally.  Thank goodness for MDs in the family and digital prescriptions.   I am feeling back to normal now and so here comes the next installment.

Keith and I are still in Fort Lauderdale having arrived here from the Bahamas on March 14th.  This was where we had arranged to have a new exhaust system fabricated and installed on both engines.  As is always the case, our repair people have been total screw-ups.  The job was to be finished by April 3rd (3 weeks - agreed to in writing) and instead we may be lucky if it is done this week (April 17th).  We understand that things are not normal these days, but they have been working throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.  However, if all of their jobs have gone like ours, no wonder things are so late.  None of the pieces they have fabricated have fit and they are having to re-manufacture all the components.  Makes you wonder how these people call themselves "experts".  A tape-measure and some planning might have been helpful and less expensive.

Assuming everything gets put back together in the engine room at their most recently projected finish date (this is a big assumption), we might be on the move north by end of this week.  The plan is to make our way to St. Augustine, where there is a little more service work to have done (I hate to think about more work and how this could get screwed up).  Nonetheless that is the plan. 

It probably is no big deal that we are later moving north than we had planned.  Going to Canada for this summer looks like it is unlikely to happen since the border is closed.  Instead we hope to eventually make our way back into NC and out to Ocracoke on the Outer Banks.  We will probably spend the summer and fall there.  Right now Ocracoke is closed to non-residents, but hopefully they will re-open in several weeks. 

I do not have any pictures as I have only been off the boat twice to go for groceries since being here.  Hopefully once we start moving again I can knock the cobwebs off the camera and get some things posted.  Keith and I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.  Remember things may be tough, but this too shall pass.