The Boat.

A place to breathe.

m/v Why Me, Lord? is a 1981 Marine Trader. 50′ length and 16′ beam. As Allen likes to say, she’s a three story Mack truck. Makes me giggle every time I hear or think about it. 

We agreed no project boats…we bought a dad-gum project boat. 

We bought her in April of 2018 in Panama City, Fl. She remained there until June 30th. We’d only left the dock twice since taking possession; once out to familiarize ourselves with our new boat and another for a pump out. Now to bring her home….what a story I have for you. I know one thing, she has one hell of a Captain!

Before we ever left the harbor, we lost the refrigerator and freezer. No big deal, we’d have plenty of places to stop, eat and replenish supplies along the way. Four out of five AC units quit. No big deal, we bought three free standing units at Sam’s. 

I should probably mention there were six of us on board. My parents and Allen’s 13 yo twin grandchildren agreed to come along for the maiden voyage. 

So, we packed the ice chests with sandwich fixin’s, lots of ice and a few other things to snack on. We cranked up the AC, the engines and we were off.

We decided to spend the first night at Shell Island close to the harbor, should anything go wrong. We had a great night and decided we’d head out at first light. Oh the excitement! 

Why Me , Lord? isn’t a go-fast boat. Cruising speed is ~7 knots. For you landlubbers, that’s roughly 8 mph. To put that into perspective, the drive from Panama City to Destin is about an hour by car. It took us a full day. We arrived just in time for a beautiful sunset…and a delicious, hot meal at Boshamps. Oh the joy. Needless to say, it was a long day and we were all pooped.

Monday morning, July 2nd, we set off for Crab Island. If you never been, I highly recommend it. They have little tiki huts, food boats, music, a floating water slide park for the kiddos and hundreds of boats. It’s a neat experience. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great so we only stayed a few hours. 

We headed West to Ft. Walton. Should you be in need of fuel, there is a great place called Adventure Marine just past Brooks bridge on the south side of the ditch. On the North side, just a few hundred feet west, is a free dock where you can fill your water tank and pump your…well, you know. It’s a great place to stop but it can be a little tricky to get in and out. 

This is where our story began to get CRAZY. We had just finished tending to the boat. Mom was in the galley whipping up some pimento cheese when she began yelling, “He went over! He fell over!” She ran to the back of the boat as though she was going to jump over. This is the same woman that fell into a 6 ft engine room just over a month earlier. UMMMMMMM….stop running before you hurt yourself! Little did I know that a young child had just fallen off the pier. The mother was running up and down the pier screaming. The father was a little way away on a kayak. People started jumping in the water searching for the young child. Going under and between boats. They could not find him. A man finally got the woman’s attention and asked, “Where did he fall in?” She pointed at the location and said that he was strapped in his stroller. WHAT?!? He’s strapped to a stroller! No d*** wonder they haven’t been able to find him. With the new revelation, they all began to dive to the bottom. Within seconds, a man came up with the child in his stroller. I won’t go into any more detail. I will just say it was a horrifying experience and by the graces of God, the child lived. We’re all very thankful the twins were napping and missed the entire thing. It was traumatic to say the least.

Our next stop was just down the ditch where we settled for the night at the Fort Walton Beach Yacht Basin. We had to back into a very narrow slip. This is where I was reminded I don’t know my left from my right. I usually relate better to port/starboard. Not today though. I was facing the back of the boat and thus was telling the Captain to go port when I meant starboard. Yikes! He managed to get her in the slip though and we’re still together. They have a restaurant on site, Original Waterfront Crab Shack, that was quite good. Warning: You’ll need a key to reenter the marina. Make arrangements if you are arriving after hours. Monday, July 4th. We were a little worried about finding a marina on the 4th so we took the first one we could find in west Pensacola. When we arrived, we couldn’t figure out to which marina we were supposed to g0. Apparently it was under construction and in the process of being sold. It was a disaster. Very small and hard to navigate a 50′ boat. To make matters worse, we lost our starboard transmission while trying to dock. Seriously!?! We limped out of the marina, dropped the anchor and spent the rest of night working on the transmission. Allen and Dad, hobbled a fix best they could to get us the rest of the way. We got started at the crack of dawn the next morning. Due to the transmission issues, we’d not be making as many stops. The goal was to get home as quickly as possible. The Captain was nice enough to stop at Priate’s Cove so I could get a bushwacker. They are the best! Unfortunately, on our way out, the fix to the transmission broke. We’d have to make the remaining 127 nm journey on one engine. Ugh. We found a great anchorage on the north side of Horn Island, MS where we arrived just in time to watch the coast line light up with fireworks. It was a wonderful way to end a very long day. The next day would take us all the way home. Which was great because we were starting to run low on ice and other supplies. The only major challenge we had ahead of us was the Rigolets CSX bridge, pronounced “RIG-uh-leez”. It’s a swing bridge and doesn’t open very wide. Allen explained that we were operating on one engine and would need the bridge fully open. Well, while waiting for the super slow bridge to open  we were battling wind from one direction and a a current from the opposite. Do you know what that does when you only have one engine? It spins you. Allen had no choice but to spin the boat around and back it through the very narrow opening. Holy hell! He just backed it through! He’s one hell of a Captain. Fortunately, the rest of the ride was smooth sailing. We were all so happy to be home. I mean HAPPY!