"E-Ticket"

For those of you who don't know what an "E-Ticket" is [and I don't mean electronic ticket!].  It was a ticket to the best, newest, most bad-ass rides. 

After our hurry up and wait weekend in Savannah, she is finally ours. First of all, Savannah is not such a bad place to have to wait out the delivery. It is one of my favorite cities in the US - lots to see and do and it was super bowl weekend. The only bad part about that was that the Pat's lost ;-(

The weather was a mixed bag - Saturday and Sunday were absolutely gorgeous - shorts and tee shirt weather, Monday turned cold and a little wet. Get this - while waiting for the super bowl to start, found a beer and chicken joint with a band that was pretty good so we decided to sit down a listen for a while. Barry and Bucky were great entertainment. In the middle of the set, Bucky called out one of his friends from the audience to join him in a song or two - it turned out to be Billy Greer from the band Kansas. OMG - what a treat to hear Dust in the Wind, 20 (ok maybe 25) years ago, I'd of killed to see this live.....

MONDAY (2/6/12)

We met up with Rick @ Isle of Hope Marina to game plan the rest of the day and the delivery - during the day we kept getting updates that the Cosco New York was going to be arriving in Savannah late due to adverse weather conditions in the Caribbean and South Atlantic a few days prior. So we had no idea if it was going to be Monday, day or night or even Tuesday. Just as we sat down to wait for a table for dinner Monday night, we got a call from Cosco telling us to be at the port authority in an hour. Here we go....

2/6/12 8:00 PM:

We were met at the port authority by Billy the Cosco Rep (a lot of Billy's in my weekend eh?) and to the ship we went. She was 3 containers above deck and we were the delivery crew.

2/6/12 9:00 PM:

The container crane lifted us to the top row of containers where Gypsy Soul had spent the last 30 days. We needed to unwrap the cloth and cut the lines... With the help of our new longshoremen friends, it was quick work.

2/6/12 10:30PM:

Time to go in the water. Out comes the slings, we make the final cuts to the lines attaching us to the cradle and container, and up (~120 ft); over the rail and into the water we went.  Holding for a few minutes, suspended just above the water, waited for a container ship to pass by - so our world wouldn't get rocked, then....

2/6/12 11:00PM:

Touch Down! Started the engines - backed out of the slings. We (well Rick) tucked ourselves at the bow of the Cosco New York to let the longshoreman off the boat and collect the rest of our gear (Coast Guard Pkg) and into the night, down the Savannah River headed to the city docks.
Check out the pictures of the crazy few hours!

2/7/12 12:00AM:

Arrived at the docks on River St, tied up, and began admiring her and what we had just experienced. I'm guessing it was one of those once in a lifetime moments. One that I will not forget soon for sure. Now off to get some sleep and ready for our couple hour ride in the morning to Isle of Hope Marina.

Watch the year in review including the delivery