On Saturday, Hill and I drove down to Crowley's Boatyard to finish packing up the boat before the transport company takes it off to Florida on Monday. It was cloudy and 40 degrees - I wore fleece long underwear and wool socks, two things that I don't plan on bringing with me to the Caribbean.
Crowley's is a popular place for boat storage in Chicago, but it's not because of their customer service. A typical encounter was an incident last summer in which they came out to Arcas to fix a leak in the head and broke the door to the head in the process. Fortunately, they tend to be more forgetful than incompetent and usually they simply don't do what they've been asked to do.
On Saturday, they demonstrated both sides of their approach. The boat is supposed to ship out early Monday morning, and Crowley's was to have packed and prepared the mast for transport. When we arrived on Saturday, we found that not only had they not packed up the mast, but the mast they had placed next to Arcas was not in fact ours. Of course, their offices are closed on the weekends, so we have no way of contacting them other than through paper notes and voicemail until Monday morning. I'm a little nervous about what will end up in Florida.
On the other hand, Hill and I did a killer job of packing up the inside of the boat. My 16 moves in 15 years have taught me a few things about packing, and I'm fairly confident that at least the interior of the boat will arrive in good shape.
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