First Cruise and Experience

Well, I am finally the registered owner of a 1993 Bayliner Ciera Command Bridge hole in the water. Banks finally got thier proverbial stuff in one sock and transferred the title. The previous owner and I went down to the Tax Collector(another agency that needs all thier employees horse-whipped), and got everything legal.



Then this past Saturday, we took the boat from his place on the Intercoastal to Mulberry Cove Marina at Naval Air Station Jacksonville(The Best Marina and Staff in the world, but more on that later).



The next day me and my Admiral Patti, gathered up some picnic noshes and my mother(who we still hadn't let in on the secret) and went down and got on the boat. My mom still thought that I had rented the boat for the day(folks, Patti and I aren't scraping the bottom to put food on the table but ain't no way we can afford to rent a boat this size in Florida).



Anyway we got underway about 1000 and went upriver on the St. Johns to just past Racy Point just to see how she'd run. Cruised at about 25 mph at about 3400 rpm at half throttle, trimmed out like a dream and ran like a champ; beautiful wake(not enough to swamp even a seadoo going past).



Turned around at Racy Point because the weather was getting hot(96) and the Admiral and the mom were getting tired. Got back to Mulberry Cove about 1400, and the Admiral got to drive us up to the mooring bouy, and she did great put us on spot on the first try, (it took two but that was because this captain can't use a boat hook for shit). We got back into shore and that's when I realized the sun was just a little bit hotter and I was just a little bit more dehydrated then I realized. Folk's I know what heat exhaustion and heat stroke are and I was right between the two. Kinda scary to say the least. Anyhow, we finally cooled off and gathered everything up and came home. It was looking a little cloudy off in the distance but I thought nothing of it.(Read this as I was an idiot).



Monday morning, I call the marina from heaven because I heard the storm was pretty bad on that side of town.(Read 60mph winds, lighting, and torrential rain and hail). Found out that SunDragon tore loose from her mooring and decided to try to sneak downriver. Tommy on the marina staff was out tying down canoes and dingies and happened to look up and saw her drifting free. He immediatly jumped in one of the marina's tenders, went out and caught her and tied her up to another mooring. Those folks were out there taking care of customer's untill 2000 on a Sunday.



I got the news, left work, and headed over. When I got there Tracy let me know that there was no damage that they could tell, and she started instructing me on what proper mooring tackle should be. Her and the rest of the staff hooked me up with the right stuff and I went out started remooring her to the right bouy; three lines at 5/8 with all the metal tackle in the world it'll take a hurricane to break her loose now.