July 28. Yesterday the towboat came as promised and took us into the Pilot’s Point Marina in Westbrook Connecticut. The marina has over 850 slips and the largest travel lift will handle up to 80 tons. This place is huge with over 70 employees running this way and that.

I had spoken to the service manager, Jeremy, by phone when we broke down to let him know we’d be coming. When we got here we went up to the office and signed in and then went back to the boat to wait.

In the afternoon Jeremy and his head mechanic came by to diagnose and plan our repair. They confirmed our suspicion that it was indeed the transmission. Jeremy said they had a scheduling meeting the next morning and he’d stop by and tell us where we fit into their plans.

I’m a little freaked out because staying here costs over a hundred dollars a night. If they can’t get to us for several days we could be spending money like crazy without getting any work done. Now I’m second guessing myself, should we have stayed out on the hook until they were sure there would be a mechanic available to us? What if it’s a week? Ommm Ommmm, half full, half full.

Good to his word Jeremy showed up after the planning session and told us we’d have a man first thing Monday morning. He was very sensitive to the fact that we are liveaboards and they were doing a little juggling to get us done before some less time sensitive projects that they had going. He also suggested I have the interior disassembled as much as possible to save time and some money. I was already planning to do that but it was nice to hear he was thinking about us saving some money.

So in the big scheme of things, we’re safe and we’re in what seems to be the best place to take care of our needs. It could have been way worse, we might have had to go into an unfamiliar anchorage under sail, search for the spot and then drop the hook with other boats all around. As it was, the transmission held out just long enough to deliver us safely with the least amount of stress. Yep, still half full.

Oh yeah, while I think of it. Since I’ve had the time and an internet connection I’ve worked on our Blog a bit and have added the option for anyone reading our Blog to add a comment there for us to read. So if you’ve got something to say…….lets hear it.