The Sailing Adventures of Lea Scotia

Cruising friends Mike and Dede (SV Joss) snapped this photo of Lea Scotia aboard to MV Beluga Fantasy while engaged in loading operations in Golfito, Costa Rica.  It was great having Mike and Dede aboard as line-handlers for the Panama Canal transit on Thanksgiving.  A few photos of the transit can be found by clicking on the December 2009 archives on the sidebar, and then clicking Next Page.

Lea Scotia is stored near the center of the ship and the picture shows she hasn’t fallen overboard yet!  I’m told the ship is currently in La Paz (hopefully north of the tropical storm forming down there) and will be on the way to Ensenada soon.  We’re still on track to unload in Victoria on June 24th. 

UPDATE:  Just got word the ship now is scheduled to offload in Victoria on June 26th.  Not good news, as I need to be at the hospital early on the morning of June 28th for the birth of our second daughter.   There are plenty of opportunities for further delays, so it looks like I’ll need to find someone else to offload Lea Scotia and bring her down to Seattle.  Disappointing, to say the least.

tdm

I’ve stopped sweating.  It’s cool, it’s drizzling – I’m in the Pacific Northwest!  Lea Scotia should be somewhere south of Cuba by now, steaming at 18 knots towards the Panama Canal aboard the MV Beluga Fantasy.  Let’s hope she arrives in Victoria before the new baby shows up on June 28th!

tdm

04 June 2010 UPDATE:  Lea Scotia was loaded this morning at 9am Eastern Time.   It’s really happening.

03 June 2010  Yesterday morning I took the dinghy back up the New River here in Ft Lauderdale to meet my cruising friend Dave on SV Starshine.  We’d met in Roatan and he ended up signing up for the same ship to transport his Shannon 38 to the West Coast (Ensenada, from which he’ll sail to his home port of Long Beach CA).  I crewed with him back down the river and Starshine is currently anchored next to me here in Lake Sylvia.  We took the dinghy over to Port Everglades to confirm the rumor:  the MV Beluga Fantasy is actually a real ship and it’s actually here!

MV Beluga Fantasy

We’ll help each other load the boats; Starshine is scheduled to load today at 5pm – Lea Scotia not until tomorrow morning 10am.  Is this really happening – is the spell going to be broken?

tdm