Back to the dock from the Haul out 2026

Getting Eximius back to the dock from Playboy Marine.

Despite the drizzling rain, and delay due to a train stopped on the tracks at Griffin Road, we arrived at Playboy Marine around 08:45 for a 09:30 splash time.

The Boat lift team were keeping the machine's engine cool as it was suffering an overheating issue. They had splashed a very heavy Diesel Fuel barge first thing that morning and that only made the overheating a bigger issue. They were confident that we would splash but perhaps not on time.

They raised Eximius off of the blocks so that the Patagonia team could complete the Anti-Foul paint on the underside of the keel and then left the boat hanging in the straps for about a half hour allowing the paint to dry before splashing.

Well, that all went well, we finally splashed around 10am. While hanging in the slings, I boarded the boat and verified no leaks, so they dropped the aft most sling and gave the instruction for us to reverse out of the slip. Easy peasy.

Once out of the slip, we turned East and headed down the Dania Cut then North towards 17th Street Causeway bridge, we were headed for the Pump-out facility on 14th Street.  We made a perfect 180º turn in the canal to go alongside the pump out jetty Port Side too.  Nobody to watch, that's how it is.

We connected up the pump out hose and activated the pump. Nuttin! We ran the pump twice but the tank level indicator stuck at 1/2 full. So we're figuring that there was either a blockage or a leak in the hose connection. We decided that we would go out 3miles next week for a dump run.

Perfect departure from the Jetty, we sprang the bow out and easily cleared the dock. At the East end of the canal, we turned North and joined the Intracoastal waterway ( ICW ) then onwards to Los Olas Blvd Bridge.

We were expecting the bridge to be under maintenance and that only 1 span would open as per the NM notice a week ago.  The bridge was fully open.

With the pedal down, we made it to Sunrise Blvd Bridge, Oakland Park Blvd Bridge and Commercial Blvd Bridge. 

Once past Commercial, we heard a Security notice on #09 that there was a Barge blocking the canal where we dock.  By the time we got to the canal, the barge had left and we docked without incident.

We were Pooped! This has been a long week, commuting daily to Playboy and working pretty long days. So we quickly secured the boat and headed home.

Before we left Playboy, we did notice how much of the Blue dust was laying on the boat, but by the time we got back to the dock, most of that surface layer of dust and airport grime had washed off ( the air port is about a 1/4 mile from Playboy ).

Nothing broke on the trip back to the dock - this is a good day.

Total cost for the stay at playboy and the work on the hull was under $4,000, plus a few incidentals - hull polish, cleaning cloths etc.  That leaves some money that we budgeted for the Haul out left for a few other projects - any excuse!

See you on the water.