KEY WEST

KEY WEST

We arrived in Key West about 9am on Wednesday. We parked at an old dock that has some very old junky boats. In fact our slip is between two partially sunken wrecks. It was a really tight fit.

The repair crew drove down from Ft. Lauderdale and arrived about 10am. They immediately started removing the broken turbo so they’d be ready when the new one arrived. Apparantly it was a real challenge getting the old one out but they finally did about 2pm. Unfortunately the new parts did arrive until about 5:30pm. It turns out that all we needed was a $5 part and they knew that several days ago. Because of some bad decisions, I estimate the repairs cost more than $5000 not counting the expenses caused by the now delayed or possibly cancelled charter that is suppose to start on Saturday. We won’t even be there by Saturday.

This boat only travels at 6 knots and its 600 miles to Belize.

We had some challenges today. The repair crew brought us a new washer and dryer while they were at it and we had to install them. Unfortunately, they don’t fit through the normal hallway in the boat so we had to bring them in using a small removable bulkhead in a storage locker at the front. We had to rip out the insulation that had just been replaced to get to the steel plates. We also had to totally empty this huge locker and the laundry room.

We were able to get the old ones out and the new ones in however. It was hard work and it was extremely hot. I believe it reached a 100. We didn’t replace the insulation and we used duct tape to cover up the cracks in the poor fitting plates. It looks horrible and it was just a quick fix.

I was able to talk to Gerri again today and I could pay $12 to connect to the Internet but I’m not sure how long we’ll be here.

I’m more convinced than ever that this job won’t last long. This boat is generally in poor condition. Because of the extremely long days when divers are aboard, the living conditions for the crew deteriorate rapidly. They is just no time for personally clean up from what I’ve heard. I also hear that there on only about 10 to 12 guest for several weeks so there are lots of empty rooms that could make things more pleasant but I don’t think we’ll be able to use them.