We had an appointment on Tuesday to get our fuel polished. If you'll remember, it seemed like our port tank wasn't working after being contaminated during our passage from the Chesapeake.
So...we contacted Independent Boatyard near Budget Marine in St Thomas to ensure they still had the "work dock" available for us to tie up. They said they did and we needed to be there mid-afternoon before they closed Monday. So that's what we did.
Independent Boat Yard is down a fairly shallow (6.5') canal and is a bit run down and has poor water drainage so there are big puddles of oily, greasy water that get on you and the boat. The docks are work and don't have power or water. All of this is fine with us since we have been to more rugged places and we were excited about getting to the bottom of the fuel issue. What we had a hard time with was the extreme difficulty we had with the office staff. The "work dock" is just a place to tie up and sort your boat at 1.50/foot/day. There is usually no one on the dock so we thought the office staff would like to take our money for less than a 24 hour stay. We were wrong. Baxter had a very difficult time getting a time from them to schedule the fuel polisher (though he was their contractor) and then they tried to charge us for two days when we went to pay after being on the dock for less than 20 hours. I had a very animated "discussion" with the office secretary and the office manager who each changed their reasons for charging us for two days each time I pointed out why their argument was not valid. Regardless, I'm sure many people who are nicer than we are and don't mind a good verbal match would have let themselves be taken advantage of and paid for two days. Never, never, never going to this yard. They are pirates and crooks. As we look back on our experience (which only lasted 21.5 hours), we can't figure out how they stay in business but we're certain it won't be our money that supports them.
Independent Boat Yard is down a fairly shallow (6.5') canal and is a bit run down and has poor water drainage so there are big puddles of oily, greasy water that get on you and the boat. The docks are work and don't have power or water. All of this is fine with us since we have been to more rugged places and we were excited about getting to the bottom of the fuel issue. What we had a hard time with was the extreme difficulty we had with the office staff. The "work dock" is just a place to tie up and sort your boat at 1.50/foot/day. There is usually no one on the dock so we thought the office staff would like to take our money for less than a 24 hour stay. We were wrong. Baxter had a very difficult time getting a time from them to schedule the fuel polisher (though he was their contractor) and then they tried to charge us for two days when we went to pay after being on the dock for less than 20 hours. I had a very animated "discussion" with the office secretary and the office manager who each changed their reasons for charging us for two days each time I pointed out why their argument was not valid. Regardless, I'm sure many people who are nicer than we are and don't mind a good verbal match would have let themselves be taken advantage of and paid for two days. Never, never, never going to this yard. They are pirates and crooks. As we look back on our experience (which only lasted 21.5 hours), we can't figure out how they stay in business but we're certain it won't be our money that supports them.
Despite the yard, we did meet with Jacques (who is not associated with the yard) and it turns out after running fuel through his mega-filter contraption, we don't have dirty fuel. Yayyyy, right? Nope. If not dirty fuel, than what? We made a quick visit to Budget Marine for various supplies to change the fuel line and we cast off the dock lines as fast as we could.
It was the first time we had been at a dock since the Chesapeake and all three of us hated it! It feels dirty and claustrophobic and like someone is making you swallow a nasty pill. Put some mean, psycho people on top of that and we were done.
We left St Thomas with 8 ft waves and threatening skies and picked up a mooring in Caneel Bay. It took all three of us a moment to take a deep breath, think of any positives we could draw on from the last 24 hours, and move on.
When life gives you lemons...think of your double rainbow happy place on Lameshur Bay and all is right again.
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| Mega fuel filter contraption thingy where our mattress usually goes. |
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| This is NOT fun - can we go now? |
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| Of course, everything comes out of both lazarettes. |
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