Last year Peter and Becky Clay were gracious and camped in their camper, in the same site as Marie and I were camped in the private campground near Ed Stone Park. Peter helped to launch the boat, get it ready and clean up each day. Our campsite was less than 100 feet from the boat slip.
We attended the "meet in the middle" with our RV and I had a mobility scooter, to travel from the RV to the gathering either in a campsite or on the dock. Logistics with a mobility scooter are a bit more complicated, at Hontoon.
Our 18' Caracal ended up flooding after an extremely low "tide" event. I had "Agreed Value" in my insurance with Progressive. The agreed value, was the amount I paid for the boat, motor and trailer in 2009. It was almost double what the replacement value currently is (similar boats listed for sale.). The boat was ruled a total loss because the engines were submerged to some degree, the boat would need extensive re-wiring and there was water in the floatation foam. I bought the boat back for about 10% of the current value. My mechanic has examined the boat, and urged me to buy it back. A good fiberglass man starts on the boat on the 1st of March. We had two choices: pop the deck liner (prohibitive cost wise by this fiberglass man). The second choice is to cut the floor out in sections, determine how much water in the foam, and then rebuild the floor, using Coosa 20 Board (Urethane and fiberglass lighter than plywood and impervious to rot etc) for the new floor and most likely install a central stringer, add bulkheads, beef up the glass at the inner hull to bridge deck, and pour less foam in a manner it could not be subject to water intrusion in the future. it is a 17 year old boat, but these are the most desirable of any of the single engine cats (Rides about the same as the Tom Cat, but with higher bridge deck clearance and the same 8 1/2 foot beam).
I will be doing a complete article for this forum and The Hull Truth, including photos of the process and results. This will include kudos to Progressive Insurance and Sea Tow Salvage crew, who pickled and got the engines running within hours of the boat being hauled out of the water, which involved working into the night.
It is extremely unlikely that we could even get 4 days to run to Deland, attend two days of gathering and back home. We will be well represented by Dan and Mary Wulfman on "Full Circle" a C Dory 25 doing the loop. They left their boat on our lift while they traveled for 2 months to visit family and take care of their business, which they are running via Starlink, from their C Dory 25.
The good news is that at 87 years of age, I am still able to boat and drive a vehicle, so we still get around, or have C Brats visit Camp Thataway. We will be at Hontoon in spirit.
