After our ten months on the Queen of Bermuda we decided to take a break and go back to the keys and the Borealis. While we were there we started playing at the Quays again. The owner of the Quay also owned a restaurant on the intercostals waterway in Ft Lauderdale fl Called Martha’s. He asked us if we would take the boat and put her on the dock in front of the restaurant so the tourists could gawk. at our now 67 year old wooden boat. He also wanted us to play there 5 nights a week. We decided we would give it a try. We prepared the boat and were ready to leave. Lonnie turned the key to start the engine and got a clunk, he tried again clunk. We checked out everything we could think of but to no avail. Just prior to us coming down to the keys Lonnie had had the boat in the lantana boat yard where they did extensive work on her including putting in a new engine. We had now been in the keys and on the cruise ships for about four years. So all warranty work was null and void.

Not knowing much about engines at the time we had to hire a mechanic. We hired a guy named John G who took a look at Samson(the engines name) and he found that lantana had installed the water lock muffler so that the water would go back into the cylinders which of course ceased the engine. John proceeded to pull the sleeves out and do a total rebuild After several hundred dollars we were on our way We prepared the boat believing that our engine problems were behind us. We headed out early one morning with the sun coming up over the horizon and dolphins following the borealis in play.

Unfortunately things did not stay so serene. After about 50 miles the engine started lousing power and smoking. We kept on going knowing that our gig at Martha’s started in a few days. By the time we got to Miami the engine was not running at all we had to sail into the marina and start looking for another mechanic! The dock rent in Miami for our boat ran around 150.00 a day. Needless to say we wanted to get out of there ASAP.

We looked up a mechanic in the yellow pages and found that no one was available for at least two weeks. With no other option we pulled the borealis with our dingy to an anchorage and waited the two weeks for the mechanic. The evening before our appointment our mechanic had a heart attack. After another two week wait we finally have a mechanic. This Guy comes down to the boat with his wife both of them had eyes that pointed in oppisite directions. They looked like something out of a laurel and hardy movie.

He decides that he needs to rebuilt the engine again. Fortunately there are lots of places to play in Miami and we were able to pick up a few nights playing. After a week of our new mechanic trying to take the cylinder walls out of the engine in the boat he finally decides that it would be better to take the engine back to the shop. Amazing seeing as we had been telling him all along that that is what he should do!!

Follow the footsteps to chapter 4