Curare's Adventures

Florida Part II

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.

Florida Part I

After Curare was offloaded from the trans-Atlantic freighter on Monday morning we motored north up the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) to a designated anchorage in Lake Santa Barbara. When we first investigated anchoring in Fort Lauderdale FL, LE contacted several friends who either live there, or had lived there in the past, and all of them said "anchoring is not possible, you have to go to a marina". However, due to a number of compounding issues, there were no marina slips available, so using a combination of the Navionics App, the Active Captain App and the online Waterway Guide LE found this anchorage, and it was in an excellent location. The word lake is a misnomer as is not really a lake, it is more of a large indent on the west side of the ICW but it had good holding, and it had a little park where we could leave the dinghy when we went ashore. But best of all it was within walking distance of Complete Marine, the place where we had arranged to have Curare put onto the transport truck.

Motoring north up the ICW we had to go under several draw bridges, these are located about 2 miles from each other and open either on the hour or on the half hour. All of them are staffed by bridge operators who have to be contacted by VHF radio, if you do not contact them the bridge does not open, not even if you are obviously waiting. Luckily we had been warned about this so we had a smooth trip up the ICW and were anchored by 1130.

This is when things started to go awry, despite all of GG's weeks of careful planning and organizing. What was to have been a six day trip turned into 10 days so we had to keep extending the rental car return date and, until our boat was on the truck, we could not make a plane reservation to fly home. The original day for loading the truck was Thursday, which meant we could leave that afternoon or at the latest Friday. But first we had to remove the mast with a crane truck so GG and the marina scheduled that for Wednesday. Tuesday afternoon we received a phone call from the trucking company that the driver's wife was on jury duty. They travel as a team, if one can't go the other won't either. We were told a different driver might possibly be here on Friday, but it would only be to load Curare and then she would sit on the truck until the original driver became available. We were OK with this plan. At this point GG tried to phone the marina to cancel Wednesday's crane truck but no one answered the phone.

On Wednesday morning we were wondering what to do about the scheduled crane truck when the marina phoned and said they could not get the crane truck until Friday. This was a good thing for the revised trucking plan but it would not have worked with the original plan, and it meant we would not be going home Friday; it would now be Saturday at the latest. We agreed, with the proviso that the crane truck should be there early Friday morning (the truck would be there at noon and we needed time to prepare the mast for shipping).

Meanwhile we were preparing the boat for trucking, living on board in a pile of belongings and on-deck equipment and taking our showers using a solar shower bag - it was exactly like camping in a small, crowded, tent. The highest part of Curare, when on the truck, could only be 13 feet 8 inches, because higher than that is considered over-height and requires special permits. As a result we had to remove the majority of deck hardware. We unbolted the aft arch and bow pulpit, took off the stanchions and lifelines and removed the dodger frame. Once the mast was removed the highest part of Curare was the top of the wind vane rudder, which could not easily be removed, and the final height measurement was 11 feet 6 inches, a big sigh of relief.  It looked like we were back on schedule and organized again.

Bringing Curare Home: Part 1

Shipping on a freighter

Once we made the  decision to ship Curare home we set about looking into how to accomplish this.  GG had previously done preliminary research looking into the various means of transport and which ports were better to leave from.  As it turned out, Palma de Mallorca was the most popular and frequent shipping point in the western Mediterranean.  We would be sailing right past this port on the way to our scheduled haulout in mainland Spain, so we decided to investigate further.

GG contacted nine shipping companies and narrowed it down to two reasonable possibilities.  The first choice was to use the float on-float off Dockwise Yacht Transport that had space available in March 2023.  This would require storing Curare on the hard in mainland Spain while GG and LE reset their Schengen time clock, and then returning to Spain in the spring to sail Curare the short 120 miles back to Mallorca.

The next choice was a freighter chartered by international shipping company Peters and May to transport an assortment of yachts from the Med to the Caribbean when the hurricane season was over and the start of the Caribbean cruising season was beginning.  This was scheduled for the third week of October and presented a number of positive aspects.  We could delay our scheduled October 20 flights home, prepare Curare for the sea voyage via freighter and fly to Miami in November to receive her rather than flying back to Spain in the spring. 

But before committing to the ocean transport we had to make arrangements for Curare in Florida.  With the recent hurricane (Ian) that damaged a lot of marinas on the west side of Florida, combined with the influx of yachts for the start of the cruising season, not to mention the Fort Lauderdale boat show, marina space was at a premium.  We needed to be at a marina to prepare Curare for her truck trip and the marina had to have enough space for the transport truck to load Curare. GG contacted many marinas by email and phone and finally one was selected that said they could haul us out and place Curare on the truck trailer.  So now we had a freighter and a place to go in Florida but we still did not have a trucking company. More phone calls were made, and even more emails were sent before finding Joule Transport, a trucking company that was experienced in yacht transport and was available when Curare was scheduled to arrive.  With all the pieces loosely schedule we were able to commit to the shipping company organizing the freighter, Peters and May.

Wire transfers were completed to secure space on the freighter, brokers were assigned to clear Curare out of Spain and another into the US, insurance policies arranged, and a marina and hotel in Palma was selected while we prepared Curare for her ocean voyage.  It was an organizational challenge to get everything to fit together, but GG persevered and got it done.

And then things started getting complicated.  The chartered yacht transport ship, MV Sophia, was delayed leaving Turkey, delayed again in Italy and Curare finally departed Palma 10 days behind schedule.  This delayed arrival in Fort Lauderdale until the third week of November, closing in on the major American holiday of the year, Thanksgiving. 

Loading Curare onto the Sophia on November 8 was delayed by almost six hours but as soon as that was finalized LE and GG raced to the Palma airport, barely making their flight to Madrid. From there we flew home to the west coast, arriving to Gabriola on November 10. We figured the ocean crossing would take about 14 days from Palma via Antigua, but then Sophia put into the port of Algeciras in southern Spain for an unknown reason, causing a further three day delay. We could not make a plane or hotel reservation in Fort Lauderdale because we did not know exactly when the Sophia would arrive and this waiting period added to our stress. Finally we received notice that the Sophia was scheduled to be in Port Everglades the evening of November 27 so we quickly made plans and flew to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday November 26.  Curare was offloaded Monday morning, November 28, and we were waiting to receive her.

We must give Peters and May good credit for their organization and handling of the sea transport.  Their local office in Palma was very helpful in finalizing all of the small details that needed attending to and the main contact in Southampton England kept us informed of dates, procedures and schedules nearly everyday.  The loadmaster, Colin, was very enjoyable to work with in spite of the need to shuffle numerous boats around the deck of the freighter to ensure there was sufficient room to squeeze Curare into her cradle. He took great care while lifting all of the transported boats on and off the freighter’s deck and Curare arrived in Florida looking exactly as she did when we left her in Palma, no extra scratches and very little grime on her topsides.

Now it was time to take Curare to the marina Geoff had found – more about that in another post.

Happy New Year

Many of you reading this blog entry have received our 2022 holiday letter and this post is exactly the same, but for others, whose email addresses we have misplaced, this is our year in review in a few paragraphs.

In early 2022, work on the Gabriola cabin continued and we finished the tiling around the fireplace, in the kitchen and bathroom plus installed a beautiful fir floor on the main level and staircase – flooring in the loft is this year’s project (and perhaps some proper curtains). The floor planks were milled by Geoff using his Woodmizer© sawmill from trees that were cut on our property. 

Geoff continued his training with the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department and attained the position of lieutenant and Linda lived part time in the condo in Vancouver and continued eradicating invasive weeds in Stanley Park. After the sailing trip was over (see below) Linda moved full time to Gabriola, with only occasional trips to Vancouver. We have a lot of invasive weeds here as well, so she has a lot to do.

The two highlights were: returning to Curare for a season of sailing and bringing her back to the west coast. I am writing this on December 28, 2022 and Curare is still not home with us, she has been stuck in Bellingham Washington since December 20 due to crazy weather, among other things. We hope to finally bring her to Gabriola in early January 2023 where we have a winter berth at a dock.

We flew to Paris at the end of June on our way back to Curare who was waiting for us in Sant Carles de la Rapita, northern Spain. It was a wonderful four day visit in the city of romance with perfect weather for walking around outside and visiting two of it’s famous museums; the Louvre and the Rodin. A train ride to Barcelona, a bus trip to Sant Carles and we finally saw our boat on July 1, Canada Day, after eight months away.

As Canadians we only get 90 days in the Schengen region so this year we decided to extend our summer season by sailing to Tunisia for 30 days. Prior to Tunisia we visited Mallorca and the island of Sardinia, where Linda visited her cousin, and two of our close friends came to visit. This summer the temperatures were almost too warm, an average of 35 C, but frequent leaps into the Mediterranean kept us cooled down. Tunisia was a stark contrast from Europe with it’s different culture, walled medinas, architecture, food, and more Roman ruins than we thought existed, but it was a country worth visiting, probably the highlight of the 2022 highlights.

Leaving Tunisia we sailed east to the tiny island nation of Malta, arriving on September 21 -Independence Day.  While wandering through the cobblestone streets of this ancient fortress we decided it was time to bring Curare home, to the west coast of Canada.  As everyone reading this can probably imagine there was a lot of discussion and we finally concluded that we did not want to make the Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and north up the west coast. Instead, we decided to ship her by freighter to Florida and then truck her overland to Bellingham, USA. This sounds simple but it was the beginning of a nightmare of challenges, some of them so unbelievable we have a difficult time wrapping our head around the events. We are planning to document the shipping journey in this blog but as we are still in the process of bringing Curare home we haven’t had much free time for writing. Hoping to get back at it in January.

Wishing everyone a calm and peaceful 2023, and now that we are home for a while please come for a visit.

Linda and Geoff