Getting the boat on the trailer was not easy.....or cheap. The first truck could not do it so we then got a wrecker. The ramp was hard bottom but not concrete and irregular and dropped off quickly. The wrecker worked well and in a half hour of fooling around we were loaded and on the street for tie down. A large crowd started to gather as time went on and a dozen of them were standing beside the boat for a group photo. One of them invited me to join the group to be in the picture. As I walked toward them someone says loud enough for all to hear "put the "black guy" ( me ) in the middle. Everyone cracked up with laughter.
When we got to the shipyard we had to wash the boat outside so we stayed hooked up to the wrecker then had him park it in the shipyard. His time was 3 hrs total so I'm thinking maybe $500 tops. From the safety of his truck, he informs me that the charges are $1,200.00. I say wow, that's a rip and turn to my buddy Ron who along with Bart made the arrangements. Now Ron is 6'- 7" and a Michael Jordan look alike. I thought he was going to rip the truck door off to get at Junior. The price fell to $500 in a hurry.
After Ron, Brant and I laughed about it over dinner at Oceania. They were a great help and we had a lot of laughs together both out at Saba Rock where I met them and at St Thomas. Ron has the Midnight Express and Brant the Monza, both pictured earlier in the thread by Jay.




When I flew out Wednesday I chartered a small plane for the ride to San Juan. It gave me some great picture taking opportunities. He flew over the port and I took a few pics. Boat can be seen near middle of the pic.



I had asked them how they would be loading the boat on the ship and they said we will "drive it on". Thought they were joking and left it at that. When I now look at this pic and see the small ship backed up to the sea wall, I think that is exactly what they will do. I sure hope that the containers do not fall on my boat ! They did say that their large ships cannot get into the port at Charlotte Amalie and that it will get transferred onto a larger ship at San Juan, PR. Glad I'm not around to watch it.

When there were no morning flights on Wednesday to get me over to San Juan, PR again, Brant came to the rescue. He called a friend that flies commercially and as luck would have it had the day off so flew me over to San Juan. We flew only at 3,000 ft so it gave me a chance to take some pics of the islands between St Thomas and Puerto Rico. Beautiful as well.
Last pic is landing at San Juan International airport.

This is a Go Pro video of David running his Tiger with me from Peter Island over to Cooper Island. Seas were about 4 ft but there was a pretty good ocean swell to go along with it. It was a fun ride. Enjoy. ( I will swap out the music for something better when I get time. LOL )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRXh7sNq6b8

Bob that is the life I hope one day I will be able to do something like this It looks beautful there

Thank you. It is nice to have goals in life and hope you to can one day experience boating in the Islands. Work hard, put some money away and you can be that guy in the hammock. LOL
All the best,
Bob

Fixed it for ya Bob.

He, he your a funny guy, Sean, I did not want to discourage him by telling him I was once a workaholic, worked really, really, really hard and woke up one day about 10 years ago and said.... there is more to life than work and I'm going to devote more time to my other passion, offshore boating. It worked out really well.

mr bob thanks for taking us along on the journey. that pic in the hammock is a beaut. sure looking forward to going along on the next adventure. vicariously speaking. thanks again

Bob, I just read the entire thread the other day and as far as I know, its the best thread ever. I wish I would have followed it day by day. Hope you have a few more stories up your sleeve from this trip to post! Thank you!

Also, I did not know Earthrace sank. Was it recovered or ? Never heard anything about this.

Thanks again Bob for sharing another great adventure and I hope that you don't let all these threads fade off. Combined, they create the makings of a wonderful book of short stories and misc. side stoies with great pictures to boot!