Marathon Boatyard

Before I arrived to Florida, a couple of Canadian Brothers had set out for Rio Dulce, Guatemala.  They had planed to cross to Cuba and work along to the west end and then cross to the Yucatan Channel.  We recently found out they only made it out 30 miles and their drive shaft broke. Apparently it had been broken once before and repaired. They had hit some crab pots and had cut the rope loose that had wrapped around the shaft but the mechanic didn't seem to think that caused the break. They sailed back and eventually were towed to the Marathon Boatyard. We dingied over and chatted with them the day they were to have the boat taken out. One brother was helping the other sail down there. He plans to live down there. It sounded like it would all end up costing about $5,000. He still hopes to get down to Guatemala in time for his brother to fly home for Christmas.

I hope our boat don't have any similar problems. A change in the wind forecast has us leaving mid day this Saturday rather than tomorrow, Wednesday. We want a window of calmer winds to cross the Gulf Stream.

Here's the Canadian's boat. Note the missing driveshaft and propellor