Friday did not go as planned, this Florida part of Curare's journey was turning into a fiasco. The truck arrived in the morning, not at noon, and the driver told us that he had to be back in the company's secure yard before sunset, which meant Curare had to be on the road by 2 PM. At 10 AM there was still no sign of the crane truck and we were still at anchor in the lake. Geoff picked up the phone and started yelling, and miraculously we were told we "could come into the marina right now and the crane truck would be here shortly". Did I mention that Complete Marine is located where a river enters Lake Santa Barbara, and depending on the tide the current is fierce. It was just our luck that the current was at it's strongest when we came into the travel lift. GG had to turn Curare beam on (sideways) to the current to line us up for entry but the current caught us and slammed Curare against the dock. There was a full contingent of Complete Marine workers on this dock to assist us and fend us off the concrete sides, but none of them raised a finger to help, so now Curare has a scraped hull, the most significant damage in 15 years away.
The crane truck finally arrived at 3 PM, meanwhile the truck and driver had left at 2 PM and would not return until Monday. So a weekend in Pompano Beach, with no place to stay because the marina does not allow live-a-boards. The mast removal went smoothly, the first thing that went well, and soon Curare's crew was busy removing the standing rigging, labelling it, coiling it up and storing it in a tote (previously purchased for this endeavour). After the rigging was removed we placed Styrofoam around the permanent mast hardware and then wrapped 
the entire mast with indoor-outdoor carpet and carpet underlay. The same was done for the roller furling head stay. We found a seedy hotel to stay in for three nights, and because we had nothing better to do on Sunday we drove west to the Everglades to look for alligators. We didn't see any large reptiles but LE saw a flock of glossy ibis and another flock of white ibis so the drive was worthwhile from a birding perspective and it was lovely to get away from boat chores for one day. However her birding highlight of this trip was a pair of Egyptian Geese, seen in the Walmart Garden Center, no lie, they were honking at the top of the racks of garden soil.
Monday morning and the truck was there as promised. Curare was hauled out of the water but then had to be pressure washed to rid her of all zebra mussels that may have attached while we were anchored in Lake Santa Barbara. Loading onto the truck went smoothly and upright stands were erected to keep her in place. The mast and roller furling were strapped onto a cradle at the side of our boat and the pulpit, arch and two totes were placed on the bed of the trailer. At this point the truck left the yard and parked at the end of the street 
to finish the remaining tasks. GG and LE took the anchor chain out of the chain locker and stored it in the second tote and then LE booked a flight home, leaving that evening at 8 PM. Plenty of time we thought, it was only 2:30 PM. Once Curare was strapped securely with tie downs, as were the arch and pulpit, she was ready for her long road trip and we followed our boat towards the highway. To our dismay we could see, from a long way off, that traffic on the highway was stopped, no vehicles were moving. Using Google Maps LE found an alternate way to get to the airport so we turned left at the next intersection and contended with thick, stop and go traffic, and detours, reaching the airport at 6 PM; enough time to return the car, check-in and eat a bit of dinner. We had not eaten anything except a breakfast pastry and both of the crew were getting rather crabby.
Happily the flight, via Seattle, went smoothly and we were back in Vancouver by 1 AM.
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