The Good Guys

Any of you who have already read How NOT to Buy a Cruising Boat know that we're pretty hard on most marine professionals. Our experience with them, and most everyone we talk to as well, is pretty much unilaterally bad. So when we run into some good marine professionals, we like to talk them up. We had such an experience earlier this summer when we hired Art Johnson Marine Surveyors. Art was a consummate professional, and tempered our very bad experiences with all of the previous surveyors we had dealt with. Now that we're getting ready to leave Oak Harbor Marina and head south in the Chesapeake I thought it was a good time to talk about one of the best places we've been fortunate to have Kintala in the past 2 years.

Oak Harbor Marina, situated deep in Rock Creek on the northern Chesapeake, is a boat yard. If you're looking for a resort to pamper you with clear water pools and hot tubs and outdoor bars, this is not the place for you. If you're looking for a hard-core, hard-working, fair priced boat yard full of employees with integrity the likes I haven't seen in many others, this is definitely the place for you. When you first arrive, it's likely that the yard manager J.B.'s firm handshake and warm greeting will be the first you experience. If you're pulling into the haulout pit, his meticulously maintained sailboat will be the one you see alongside, a testimony to the quality of work you can expect.

Josh, A.J, Derek, J.B., and Chris

If you're coming for a rigging inspection or replacement, Chris will be your man. If you've followed the blog for awhile, you'll remember that this is where we launched our full time cruising adventure. It's where we replaced the standing rigging on Kintala, and where we chose to return for a rigging inspection this summer. Chris is careful and methodical in his inspections, a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed in the boating world, since many insurance jobs are sent here for completion. Chris is also a master at parts sourcing and has rarely let me down in obtaining any part I needed.


If you're coming for fiberglass work or painting, the very talented Josh is the guy you want. I had the chance to see his work up close and personal as a boat with a 10" or so hole punched right through the port bow topsides came to his shop for repair recently. If it wasn't for the repaired area being cleaner than the rest of the very dirty boat, you would never know where the damage had been when he finished.  Major or minor fiberglass repair or paint jobs are no challenge.

A.J. and Derek are the boat yard crew. No matter the time of day, the day of the week, the temperature, or their schedule, these guys are working hard. So hard, that it took me over an hour just to get all five of the guys in one place for a picture. No matter, they still manage to find time to greet you warmly. Clearly they love what they do because smiles and laughter abound during the work day. Derek even finds the time to race in the Wednesday club races and is an excellent racing captain.

On site at Oak Harbor Marina they also have a full-service engine shop, Anderson Marine. Nelson and his crew never seem to leave. They're the first ones there and the last ones to leave nearly every day. Fortunately, we haven't had to utilize their services but if you need it done, they're there for you.

Aside from the skilled people here, the thing that makes Oak Harbor stand out is the customer service. Ken and Barb Broman, the owners of Oak Harbor Marina, set the tone for their team, and it's one that puts the customer in the forefront. There is never any doubt that things will be done right, a rarity in the marine services industry. It was one of the main reasons we chose to sail all the way back north to put Kintala here while we went back to St. Louis to sell the condo and to work on her after we returned. As I think back on the two years since we left our home slip at Boulder Marina, only a handful of faces in the marine services industry come to mind. Craig at Tradewinds (customer service defined), Gerry at Cameron Marine Transport, the folks at Dinner Key Moorings and the guys at Oak Harbor. It's a small, exclusive club, and one that we've been happy to be on the receiving end of.

So if you happen to be looking for a great place to haul your boat for some work, consider Oak Harbor Marina. Now that Kintala is leaving, they may need someone else to keep them busy!

Of Chances and Chases

Bill and Ann Chase are good friends from our years at Boulder. Deb and I happened to be available to help when their boat "Cowboy Up" should have been ready to go on the truck. It wasn't, but we were around to pick up a ball someone else had dropped and soon it, and Bill, were settled in FL with Ann catching up a little later. Cowboy Up was a smallish Hunter. A good boat but not really up to the task of full-time, live-a-board, cruising.

When Kintala came through FL on her make-it-up-as-we-go cruising life, seeing Bill and Ann again was one of the rewards for making it that far. Cowboy Up and been replaced with a much more capable rig, but it was up on the hard with bits and pieces scattered hither and yon. It was the typical nightmare story of marine industry shady dealings and incompetence. They seemed pretty discouraged but a life time of working in the airline industry (where shady dealings, incompetent management, and servile unions make the marine industry look like children pretending to be gangsters) has made Bill a Master of stoic survival and American Zen.

And so it came to pass that Kintala ended up in Brown's Marina in Bimini, the Bahamas. Temporary Crew Kacey and I were hoisting a cold one at the marina bar when a good looking center cockpit ketch rig came chugging up the channel. That has become the default base configuration for what I think makes a good full-time cruiser and we both hoped it would take a slip nearby where we could check it out. We were chatting it up when the first peel of thunder from an approaching storm interrupted, and we lost track of where the ketch was going.

In a way unique to marinas the rumblings sparked choreographed movement throughout the docks; lines were checked and doubled, plastic windows went into place, hatches closed, fenders retied ... and when a boat was ready for the approaching storm its crew would look around to see if anyone needed a hand. I noticed the ketch rig settling in two slips down and across from Kintala, an apparent crew of two still busy setting lines. I wandered over to see if I could help thinking the guy on the bow looked vaguely familiar. As I secured the port bow it was clear he was trying to place me as well.

"Where are you from?"

"St. Louis, that's our Tartan 42 over there."

"St. Louis? I'm from St. Louis. What's you name?"

"TJ."

"TJ! I've been on you boat. You showed it too me at Boulder. I'm John, Bill Chase's friend, and this is his boat."

"Can't be. I saw Bill's boat just a couple of months ago and it was a disaster; up on the hard, rotted floor ripped out, water tanks missing, new ones late, rigging shot, masts down, this can't be Bill's boat."

Photo Courtesy of Kacey Cramer

But of course it was. Bill was down below filling out the customs forms and could hardly believe it was me climbing down his companionway. Bill, John, and John's daughter Stacy, had just finished the first open water passage of Driftwood. I rounded up Deb and Kacey, both as unbelieving as I over this chance encounter of old friends hundreds of miles and months (or years) having passed since the last. Laughter and surprise filled the cabin as the six of us settled into Bill's newly rebuilt interior and talked well into the evening. Deb and I shared stories of our first 6 months of climbing the cruising learning curve and we all roundly condemned shyster boat brokers, incompetent surveyors, and careless suppliers. We also sang the praises of the few. For Bill it was the crew that rebuilt the interior, for us the welder at Tradewinds, Cameron Marine who moved Kintala East, and the guys at Oak Harbor who saved our bacon more than once and got us on our way. There was talk of future plans, stories of Stacy's world traveling, pilot talk, (Bill, John and I all being professional airplane drivers) and more sailing stories.

Photo Courtesy of Kacey Cramer

Typical of cruisers we are not sure what we will do next. This is a shake-down cruise for Bill. They will be heading back to Miami after a short stay. Kintala will be heading that way in the next couple of days as well, so we may buddy-boat with an old Friend from Boulder to end our first Island adventure. Or it may not work out that way. We'll see. Either way, the sailing Goddess and Fate threw a perfectly delightful surprise our way; one I'm sure we'll talk about for years.

Photo courtesy of Kacey Cramer

So close ...

We are so close!

Cameron Marine Transport got us out of the Midwest a couple of weeks later then we had hoped. But they made a blazing two day trip across the Allegheny mountains to the side near the ocean and, most importantly, delivered Kintala to the Oak Harbor Marina without so much as a scratch. The last few hundred yards of the trip were down a driveway that looked way too narrow and overhung with trees for boat and truck to squeeze through. The good folks at Oak Harbor assured me there would be no problem, that bigger boats had come that way more times than could be counted. And of course they were right. By mid afternoon Kintala was sitting in sight of the creek that joins the river which flows into the bay that leads to the ocean. Less than two hours later her mast was secure on the rack and she was secure in her second set of stands in almost as many days.

There had been a small hope that the boat would go straight from the truck to the water but the guys at Oak Harbor suggested we not be in such a rush. There is still the propeller issue to settle along with a couple of other minor jobs below the waterline. Taking a few extra days at this point to ensure everything is done right is the smart way to go. We did get the dodger and Bimini back up, then headed off to spend the night with family; where I sit in air conditioned splendor, stretched out on the world's most comfortable couch, and bang on this keyboard. (Ed note: sorry about the smudge on the camera lens that was not discovered until too late. It was a very hot and sweaty day...)

These have been some of the most remarkable, busy, hot, and challenging couple of weeks I have ever had; and I am feeling the miles and hours of work. This final transition from old life to new has been a fantastic journey all of its own. New experiences, new friends, new places; the sadness of saying good-byes, trying to imagine what will come up next; and now the final couple of days before The Retirement Project is a project no more. Perhaps I should be elated that we are finally here, but mostly I'm just tired. It is a good kind of tired though, the kind that comes of hard efforts to do a worthy thing. Within a few days we can write about splashing, stepping the mast, casting off, a first night on the hook, our first day on the Bay.


But for tonight I am content knowing we are so close.