Been on the beach way to long…..Sea Captains prefer to be at sea…..And am I feeling that way now!  Hello to all my blog followers….No I did no fall overboard..but have been high and dry in the dry dock for over two weeks….or “on the hill” as they say in nautical terms….

 

We came in for a shave and a haircut…..(translates to clean the barnacles off the bottom and put on some new paint)…..while we were here we did some upgrades to the main engines and added a brand new OWS (oily water separator). Trying to join the “green crowd”….more on that later as it is a great machine….

 

Then we had a bit of bad timing with a little bad luck for dessert…..

 

Bad timing….as we were about to finish up painting  Tropical Storm Debbie decided to sit off the Gulf coast and dump massive amounts of rain on Jacksonville…..roads were flooded, power was out, and painting was pretty much out of the question….my shoes were soggy for days….I prefer being on the bridge 40 ft above the water…not wading in ankle deep water around the keel!

 

Bad luck…..It was a beautiful morning….Debbie had passed offshore and the sun was trying to peek out….looked like we would be back on track for completing our job and getting back in the water….. I was  watching a large barge with an 80 ft Crane passing down the river.  I looked a bit further down the river and watched the 80 ft crane approaching some 60ft high power cables that crossed the river…..This is the point when any educated Captain would  dig out the calculator,  or just count by tens on his fingers….and discover that the math just did not work out in his favor…..sparks started to fly and the entire shipyard and most of Amelia Island was in the dark…..

 

We missed the tide….and here we sit….another night  “on the hill”…..

 

The good news is we will arrive back in Cape Canaveral on Friday…..hope you all missed us….

 

See you on board,

 

Capt Tim