[And, of course, we'll also repair all the stuff on deck or above which
has been either damaged or entirely lost. All this will take a month
or two, after which we'll head out again.]
================================================== ====================
Yo ,, Skip..... in two months it will be the beginning of hurricane season
in Florida. Well, at the least the beginning of the beginning.

How about getting your boat fixed, having it trucked to Maine, and starting
out from there. I can steer you in the direction of a few yards that will
do you right, and you can get out of Florida so that the Karma will be
better when you set forth for your second trip to paradise.

=============

Probably cost a couple of grand to get her up to Maine. But .. at least we
don't have reefs, just big rocks. When you ground up here, there is no
calling the adjustor ........ unless his name is Charley and he is a Tuna.

================================================== ==========

"Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
oups.com...
Update: we have just learned that our boat has been declared a total
loss, a not-unexpected outcome.

What the implications for that are we don't yet know. A message left
by the next level adjuster (after having been turned over by the
medical/injuries adjuster to whom it was first assigned based on our
being taken to a hospital after the Coast Guard pulled us off, their
standard procedure) suggests that there will be a net dollar
settlement, with us keeping the boat.

While we may not like the dollar amount, being able to keep our boat
is absolutely key, as this is our only home, and our only possessions
are aboard. So, for the moment, this is very encouraging,
particularly in light of the below.

A marine investigator came out last week and looked at the hull and
immediately left. The yard sent a report to the marine investigator
yesterday to the effect that there was no way they could quote on the
full repair without disassembling the interior of the boat. The
exterior (new rudder, fiberglass, bottom paint, bootstripe and general
paint), came to under 40K, which is well under the policy limits - but
says nothing about paying for the salvage, of course, nor the interior
repairs needed to totally restore the boat to the same condition as
when we went ashore.

General consensus of all we have heard from, including, today, the
fiberglass guy who will be consulting on our quick-and-dirty repairs,
is that if we patch the ground up exterior, and either replace or
repair the rudder, we will be a much better boat than 2/3 of what's
out there doing what we want to do; if we, over time, make the tabbing
repairs ourselves, we'll be very close to, or perhaps, even, better,
than when we got the boat.

The financial parts are entirely unknown at this point, and in order
to make it all happen, now, we are coming out of pocket. Various
opinions have it that we'll be offered the boat free so they don't
have to deal with it (after whatever values we agree upon), to
accepting some lowered settlement, but getting to keep the boat. I
expect the latter, but they may demand the title in order to settle,
which would be very bad, both in that we'd then have to buy it back,
and that it would be a salvage title, uninsurable even for another,
perhaps.

It's still an unknown - but we're proceeding on the basis of expecting
to keep the boat one way or the other, or we'll be stuck in limbo for
an indeterminate time. We're doing the initial "emergency" repairs
here, and expect to go to St. Petersburg for the balance of the work
we have to do.

On the subject of St. Pete, we've had many recommendations of other
yards. For a large variety of reasons, we've decided to stick with
the yard we know. Many other opportunities exist, but there are
advantages, not the least of which is much of Lydia's family being in
that area, which will drive us to that decision.

However, while we expected to be able to leave Monday, weather here
and toward our destination is really lousy, or dangerous, depending on
how you look at it. So, we're going to make lemonade out of the
lemons presented, and do as much as we possibly can while we're here.

The fiberglass contractor whose business is in the yard has been
consulting with us as we do all the prep work. We'll have pictures up
sometime soon on the stuff we're doing right now, but the simple
presentation is that this is one stout boat, and the hull repairs are
very straightforward. Mostly a few holes to fill, and then layup of
great sheets of fiberglass and resin.

The rudder isn't much more complicated other than having to re-adhere
the skin on the starboard side, and build up the interior in order to
fabricate some more skin, but just taper the edge to the level of the
larger piece remaining. Most likely we'll replace the rudder,as it's
suffered a lot. There's also all the skin now exposed which will have
to get the barrier coat, as well as replacing all that bottom paint.

Because the boot stripe was a bit abused in a few places, as well,
we'll take advantage of the reality of the very low water line to make
that the new water line, and make a new boot stripe above it. In the
course of grinding off the bottom paint to make a good bonding point
for the new fiberglass, we saw that the waterline had already been
raised by an inch some time in the past. I also discovered a large
gouge which had been simply faired in with the equivalent of Bondo,
courtesy of some prior owner. This old gal has been through a lot...

While we're adjusting the white parts of the hull, we'll take the
exhaust, currently (considerably!) below the water line at the stern,
and make it a side exit, where one can actually see the water coming
out.

And, of course, we'll also repair all the stuff on deck or above which
has been either damaged or entirely lost. All this will take a month
or two, after which we'll head out again.

Thanks for asking. More pix going up, tonight. Also, if you're one of
those who've sent money off to the trust, we got our first check
today, without attribution, so we don't know our benefactors. If you
were part of it, please accept our heartfelt thanks. We can't
emphasize enough how blessed we are by the cruising community.

L8R

Skip and Lydia

Morgan 461 #2 Disaster link: http://ipphotos.com/FlyingPig.asp
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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"Believe me, my young friend, there is *nothing*-absolutely nothing-
half so much worth doing as simply messing, messing-about-in-boats;
messing about in boats-or *with* boats.

In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.

Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never
get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to
do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."