Grace needs a little “out of the water” time – to get the bottom painted, some seals upgraded, the prop swapped out with the spare, the rudder adjusted, and the stabilizer fins serviced. So we left our beautiful marina, and did the 1.5 hour trip to the Playboy Marine Boatyard. (Not sure where the name came from – not a bunny in sight.) So down the New River, past many beautiful old Florida type homes, then by hundreds of high rises, and under 5 drawbridges. Next a few minutes on the Intra-Coastal Waterway.
Then up the Dania Cut-off Canal; more industrial and less private homes. There are many boatyards along this canal. We were soon at the Playboy Marine site, and the Travelift was in place awaiting our arrival. A little intimidating, with a bit of wind pushing us forward, and two gigantic Mega Million Dollar yachts close on either side!
But we managed rather painlessly to get Grace in proper position, and the excellent handlers arranged the slings under her hull and lifted her out of the water. She only weighs 98,000 pounds!
If you ever get somewhat smug, thinking you have a big boat, Ft Lauderdale is the perfect cure for that! Our boat looks like a toy between these two Super Yachts!
Once lifted out of the water, they power wash her and drive her to a parking spot, where they carefully rest her on blocks and chocks, undo the slings, and drive the Travelift to the next boat. They seem to move about 1 boat every hour. Again, while I am very impressed how the Travelift can easily lift a boat this size, the next yard over has one twice the size used to lift boats you see on either side of us.
So now our “little boat” is “on the hard”, getting her work done. She does somewhat dwarf the van…