Another Pinedaville has come and gone. Sharon and Ed flew in Thursday and we were supposed to head down the river to join the party on Friday. This is the second time we have started a voyage on a Friday, and the second time that we have been sorry that we did. The morning was uneventful. Everyone took showers and did their last minute boat preparations. By noon LaLeLu was packed and running. As soon as Chris put her in gear it was obvious that something was wrong – the engine squealed and I could feel the boat “squat.” We cleared the dock and I frantically pulled open the lazerrette to have a look at the beast. Big trouble was apparent – water was coming in through the shaft and the shaft seal intake hose was wrapped around the shaft. At this point we had no way to get back in the slip and were drifting forward into the alley. I took the helm and Chris tried to stop the water by wrapping his shirt around the shaft log. Fortunately people on the dock saw the epic unfolding and Sharon and Ed threw lines. They pulled us to the T-head and before we even got all the way to the dock, I jumped onto the dock and ran to find the Yanmar mechanics that I saw there earlier that morning. We narrowly avoided haulout - the Yanmar guys were able to pull the shaft and replace the seal with the boat in the water. Phew! Bad news was that by the time we got her put back together, we were too late to make the last opening on the State Road 3 Bridge. We weren’t going anywhere that Friday – Score was Murphy - 1, Conrads and Guests - 0.
We drove over to the Pineda causeway to join our comrades for pizza. As usual, Jim and Donna exceeded expectations with their 10th annual version of Pinedaville. At first we were bummed that our boat was not among those in the anchorage, but as the sun started setting and the temps dropped, we started thinking that reverse cycle heat might be a nice thing. We stayed and chatted a bit, ate some pizza, and stayed until our butts were frozen and then headed back to the boat. Sharon made a cute little wind breaker out of a garbage sack – nice job McGyvor.
Saturday morning at about O’dark thirty we unplugged, untied and headed LaLeLu down the river so she could join her friends. The wind was behind us and very light. Spinnaker weather. We raised the chute and motor-sailed all the way under just Spinnaker. You get so much attention with that pretty sail up. People that passed on the river radio’d to tell us how pretty she looked. We flew it all they way to the anchorage and only doused it when we turned to anchor. Quite an impressive way to arrive into the anchorage. We got anchored at about 10:30 am and went into costume mode. The 2007 theme was cartoon characters. Our entry was Cat in the Hat. We loaded up into the dingy to make our grand entrance. Chris sat in the front ‘steering’ his fake cartoon steering wheel, Park shook her morroccas, Sharon honked the air horn, and Ed’s whirly hat spun madly in the breeze. We won the Best Costume award. Quite an honor.
Solar Stik Brian and his gorgeous wife Stephanie were there in their boat Empty Pockets. The weather was beautiful, and we had a fun day playing games and visiting with everyone. When the sun went down the campfires popped up and the music kept going and going. I tried to do my part in burning up the dance floor. Chris didn’t feel well so he hung out on the boat – bummer.
On Sunday we packed up and headed up the river with a group of others, including Brian and Stephanie. Fortunately for us, Brian is a maniac with the camera and he took gobs of pictures of us underway. In fact, I think that if we printed out all of his pictures and put them in a flip book, we could make them into a moving picture. We had a great time and, as I sit here typing this, I am already thinking about next year.
