Stopover in Titusville

After a week of sailing school we still had a few things that needed to be fixed/ installed on the boat so we went to Titusville to meet up with our mechanic. Ben got some great pictures of the Titusville Municipal Marina –he was thrilled when they gave him 2 free Cokes after he emailed them to the dockmaster (he works for cheap). The marina is actually pretty good– clean bathrooms, laundry, protected, and great Wifi (which is a rarity for a marina).

Our friends, Debi and Roxanne, brought over our van to use for a few days so we could easily reprovision, as well as run to West Marine, Lowes, and Home Depot for boat projects. And of course, while in Titusville we stuffed ourselves at Dixie Crossroads– they really have the BEST corn fritters and rock shrimp.

We had such good Wifi that we decided to catch up on all out internet activites. We backed up all the computers, downloaded updates on all our devices, did some online shopping, and the kids plowed through school work (so much easier with fast internet). Just one hiccup. In my excitement to have fast internet I accidentally downloaded a huge Apple operating system update on my 2012 Macbook. That computer has all of our boat documents, kid’s transcripts and school work, pictures, and music. The new operating system went up I think about three levels, I think I was on Yosemite and downloaded High Sierra. Anyway, not only did I do that but since I thought I was just downloading some little app updates I didn’t backup the computer beforehand. Well, that computer got caught in a loop, it couldn’t install the update, and it wouldn’t cancel the attempt to update. Tim Cook, if you are reading this, there really needs to be some sort of emergency abort button, like an Option + N + M for NeverMind. I ended up taking the laptop to an Apple computer repair place about an hour away in Melbourne.

Me: My computer is frozen

Repairman: That will be $80 for diagnostics

Me: Diagnostics? I can tell you what the diagnosis is. I totally messed up and tried to stall a new operating system. How much would it be to just fix it?

Repairman (not amused) : It will be 2-3 days turnaround, can I have your name and address?

Me: Ummmm. I don’t know where I’m going to be in 2-3 days. You sure you can’t do it now?

Repairman (thinks I’m crazy): Your address?

Me: Well……….. let me think about it.

Repairman sighs.

Honestly we were going to be leaving Titusville in the next day or so, but there was a weather front coming through so we hadn’t made any definite plans. Will I be in Cocoa? Vero Beach? Fort Lauderdale? Where do I send a computer? I’m not going to have a car. There isn’t a marina heading south that I would feel comfortable sending a computer to.

I ended up giving him a friend’s address in Orlando just in case.

He called me the next day: Computer’s fixed. I close in 2 hours and I’m closed over the weekend.

YAY! Kim raced down and got it. He was able to save the data, wipe the hard drive, reinstall the operating system and replace the data. Saved!! Lesson learned.

My dad’s response to all of this? With all the technology you are dependent on you are using a 2012 computer? Ummm…..good point, Dad.

We did have a moment of excitement. Ben and Dad were off playing with his drone. Aislin, my step mom Terry, and I were hanging in the cockpit. I looked out and saw a trawler coming in fast and really close. He was going to the fuel dock in front of us and misjudged his approach. I ran up there just as he crashed into our bow. Aislin and Terry ran up to help. They grabbed fenders and we held fenders between the two boats as his boat kept grinding back and forth and back and forth hitting our boat, as he kept trying to turn his boat away from ours. Eventually his wife and I managed to separate our boats enough that he could surge forward and crash into the fuel dock. Kim was out running errands and got the call from the marina–an hour later.

Marina: Yeah, we got the insurance information for your boat wreck

Kim: WHAT???!!!!! hangs up on them and calls me

Me (totally unsuspecting the level of panic on the other end) : Hey sweetie

Kim: IS EVERYONE OK???!!!!

Me (totally not connecting the accident to her current level of panic): Sure, why?

Kim: The marina said you were in an accident!!!!!!!

Me: Oh yeah, that’s right, we were but everything’s ok. How do you know this?

Kim: I’ll call you back, I just hung up on the marina and I’ve got to call them back.

So funny yet sweet at the same time. Certainly if someone had been hurt I wouldn’t have waited an hour to call her and tell her.

Kim and I inspected the side of our boat later with the dinghy–we really got lucky. Lots of marks in the gelcoat where the fenders were rubbing and only one deep scratch through the gelcoat that will need repairing. The collision sounded so much worse.