Most of you know that I've been looking to buy a sailboat for our new life in Florida. And Tuesday, Rob and I drove up to Oklahoma City to look at and probably buy a Nacra 5.2 catamaran. Well, we liked it and we did! YAY!! We now own a white 17 ft catamaran we've dubbed the S.S. Awesome. Score.
The sails were in great condition (one of the very important factors), but the boat hadn't been in the water in 4 years and the trailer hadn't been on the highway in probably far more time than that. Well, our initial estimate to drive home went later than planned because we thought we had the right size trailer ball and we didn't. sigh. So after a trip to Wal-Mart, Rob returns and we take down the mast (in the process, we bend a bolt with our inexperience - oops!) The former owner helps us prepare the rest of it for riding and we set off at dusk (with no working trailer lights, oh dear!)
The S.S. Awesome at the gas station
Just north of Lawton, Rob and are happily riding with our boat behind us when we feel a jump and both our faces fall - "uh oh. what was that?" Well, we pull over and find no left wheel on the trailer. FIE! FIE! FIE! We look for the wheel, but it's dark and we were travelling on the highway... After calling numerous potential sellers of trailer wheels and finding them all closed, we made one final call to the highway patrol to ask them not to tow our boat. We left our boat on I-44 and returned home to sleep in Wichita Falls.
Our boat trailer with no left wheel!
Yesterday morning! We get up early and grabbed the Krispy Kreme donuts (that my wonderful husband bought for me on his trip to get a trailer ball in OKC!!!! - he is so awesome!!! ... and he knows how much I love Krispy Kremes) and set out to get our boat.
The boat and trailer on the side of I-44
Here again, I'd like to give applause to my very capable husband for his handyman skills - he took off the whole axle of the trailer (that included a lot of him lifting the boat and trailer while I placed the blocks or dislogded the axle tongues!) His arms were SORE! We took our axle to Lawton and found a trailer place, bought a new hub and went to a marine place and bought a new trailer wheel. We returned to the trailer and with a LOT of effort (Rob holding the boat and trailer while I furiously tried to quickly replace the tongues!) we had ourselves a tow-able trailer once again! Rob is my hero!
The axle we took off the trailer
I'm really looking forward to sailing it on the bay in Florida (and you can too if you come to visit me! :-)
3 comments:
wow!! that is fantastic! looks beautiful and will be so perfect in the gulf :) Are you planning on taking it to Japan, too? I think you have to be able to cram it into a shipping containter for the military to move it for you, or you can have them pay you to sail it there. wheeeee!
Very nice! Just one question, Do you know how to sail?!?!
Yes, Rob and I can sail the small sailboats (sunfish-type) just fine. Good question! :-) This is our transition to bigger and better! Woo hoo!
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