THE SAGA CONTINUES :-(((((

After several days living on the hard with no AC, we decided to take the damaged prop over to Bradenton (3 hours away) ourselves, hoping to get it done faster. They will try to fix the bent prop, but this will take a few days.  Fortunately, they had a new replacement prop that we were able to buy, and  we drove it back to Cracker Boy Boat Works the next day.

The  bright side of spending the night in Bradenton is that we stayed in a gorgeous Hampton Inn in the historic district. It was one of the nicest hotels we have ever stayed in. That includes 5 star diamond rated hotels. Because we are Hilton Honors members, they even upgraded us to a corner suite with a view. That evening we walked to O Bricks, a very pleasant bistro, and enjoyed a nice dinner.....a good reprieve from being on the hot boat in the boatyard.

OUR SPANKING NEW PROP

Upon returning to Ft. Pierce, the contractor working on the prop had us take another look at the running gear. Turns out we now have to not only replace the prop, but need to weld the rudder shoe, the rudder, the drive shaft and replace the dripless. Since I am the one writing this, I probably am not explaining this very well, but bottom line is that all of this will take much more time and $$$$$$.

The weather has been hitting the low 90's during the day and our holding tank is filling up. This means we need to find a place to stay during all the repairs. So....we jumped on a plane in Orlando and flew back to Texas yesterday ! We will enjoy the comforts of home for a few days .

We have had a couple of chuckles. Not only is the boat yard called Cracker Boy, but we traveled the Cracker Trail to cross Florida to Bradenton. I googled Cracker, and it is a derogatory word for white people.....HMMM....doesn't seem right to me that that word is still being widely used....just sayin'.