[Rhodes22-list] Sailing to Italy almost gone

[Chris Geankoplis]

Well it was an eventful day taking to Enosis to the marine terminal in
Baltimore.  It's a 45 minute trip.  Took 4 hours.  I've towed this boat for
the last 15 years and the other Rhodes off and on occasionally when I
borrowed a trailer for another 20 years.  A couple of first (and lasts I
hope) made up my day.  Rented an F250 for $108 for a day after describing
what I was doing.  It didn't have a hitch and the newer F250's are all
jacked up.  So had to get a hitch extension and ball and could not get
enough of a drop, only 4".  Hitched up the trailer, put the safety pin in
and left for the terminal.   A half mile down the road the trailer jumped
off the hitch.  Called my wife and sister-in-law and they arrived with some
cinder blocks and my 2x3 lever.  Levered up the tongue and dropped the jack
and cranked it up back on the hitch but this time made sure the tongue was
locked in place.  Thank goodness for safety chains!

Got on the freeway for a mile or two before several cars let me know the
tire was smoking.  I guess the drop off the hitch tweaked or twerked the
frame.  Called wife and she went out with her sister and got a cordless
Ryobi angle grinder with a metal cutoff blade.  She charged it up at the
store first and then drove out to the boat.  As an after thought I had her
pick up a hacksaw and blades.  Angle grinder ran for 4 minutes and quit.
Arrgh.  She and I hacksawed the brackets off and tossed the offending
fender in the truck bed. (what a wife! Hey she even kept the West Marin
catalog in the bathroom)

Finally got to the escort service at 2:30.  Uh, not that kind of escort
service. I handed over the special forms and then they gave me a "follow
me" car.  This is a required contractor to lead me around the terminal and
through all the check points.  At $50 an hour very reasonable.  Finally
arrived at the shipping company and after a wait was directed to park the
boat with several other boats, all high powered power boats.  Helped the
guy measure the boat with the final shipping dimensions at 8 foot wide, 26
feet long and 6 foot 8 inches high, he was not too strict on a couple of
dimensions.  This should reduce the shipping costs somewhat.

Left the boat with mixed emotions.  Mostly "free at last, free at last".
So in summary: "Elvis has left the building (almost).

Chris Geankoplis