Yes, I am still in Cleveland
Snow Woman build by Karen and Sheila Allenick with assist from Bear.
By now I would have expected to be in Florida with the boat clean, the repairs well on their way and a bit of traveling under our belts. But man plans and G-d laughs and that was certainly the case this year. On October 30th while we were at a dinner for Israeli Bonds, our oldest daughter Karen was in a golf cart accident. She was life flighted to Metro hospital where she spent the next eight miserable days on a ventilator. The golf cart overturned and ended up on top of her in a private individual’s back yard. I won’t go into all the details but she suffered a fractured scapula, two ribs and one vertebrae. Once off the ventilator they were able to transfer her to Cleveland Clinic Rehab hospital where she contracted Covid and spent another week doing therapy and trying to get her strength back. From there she came to our house in Beachwood to recuperate. Karen lives downtown in a building that had a broken elevator and a 50 pound dog that her injuries made impossible to walk. So, she moved to Beachwood with us for the short-term. Thank G-d with PT and OT and speech therapy she is doing great, the elevator is now fixed and she will be returning home at the end of this month.
So November and December were spent at various hospitals and doctor’s offices. Bob also got Covid – not a very bad case as it was intense but lasted less than a week. We got into a routine with walking our grand puppy, bob purchasing what was needed to make the boat repairs and catching up on some television series.
After new year’s, friends from Burnt Store, Sean and Julia, came to Cleveland so that they could visit and see a boat that was for sale in Erie PA. Their boat had been totaled during Ian and they were looking for a replacement. They had the boat out of the water during the storm in a boat yard with hurricane tiedowns. Unfortunately, the boat dominoed over and water got inside their boat – not a good situation. They also suffered a broken keep and mast.
We had a lovely visit with Sean and Julia, including a trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Erie boat was a bust. It was raining and we could see where the rain came into the boat at the hull deck joint in various places. It always surprises me that people don’t realize how a boat should be taken care of. There are some projects/repairs that should be done by a professional if the owner doesn’t have the knowledge. Gum and susp enders don’t work when you need to keep water out to ensure the integrity of the boat and the safety of the crew.
Julia went back to Kansas City and Sean drove down to Florida with Bob. I can’t thank him enough. Bob was anxious to get started on the boat and the doctor thought Karen needed some additional healing time. Bob needed to have the car in Florida and this worked out for both situations. The car, which Bob calls Kermit, (yes it is green) has been nothing but problems. Before they left we had to replace the transmission and on the way down one of his tires literally fell apart. The tread came away from the sidewall. It turns out the mechanism in the car that tellsyou if the tires are properly aligned was faulty. So when the tires were aligned last – in fact they weren’t. Four new tires later – we are getting rid of the car in the spring.
Friends helped Bob put the main sail back on - no small task. We are a sail boat again.
So now the plan is for Karen to move home on Friday January 27th and me to fly down to Florida on the 29th. I hope all goes well and I will be able to meet that time frame. Bob has been busy recommissioning the boat and fixing some of the smaller issues.
Bob went up the mast to fix a light and the anemometer that was damaged in the storm.
Once I am down – I’ll help Bob remove the damaged parts and take it over to Charlotte Harbor for fiberglass repair and a paint job. We are hoping that once the boat is out of the water we will not have any surprises with additional repairs. We will then do a bit of land travel visiting friends in various parts of the west coast of Florida.
I will keep you posted on our progress.
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