Stardate 12049.7

Captain's Log: Stardate 12049.7
After being stuck indoors here in Sarasota for far too long a time due to coronavirus, I decided the best way to social distance and enjoy the sunshine is to get on board the Enterprise for some voyages around Venice and the Gulf of Mexico.

Other boaters and spectators along the Venice Jetty would often wave and admire how cool the boat is, which led me to a new challenge. How do I make an awesome 1990 C&C 37/40+ named the Starship Enterprise cooler? There was only one way....

First step was finding the right installer and getting the right equipment:

What is that, you ask? A new warp core? A new plasma injector coil for the impulse engine reactor? A new phase inducer to regulate the yield of a photon torpedo? Sorry, all your guesses are wrong.

Phase 2 involved some preliminary installation:

Phase 3 was going to be a difficult one. Unlike City Island, where a short haul is just a 20-minute ride around to the other side of the island, the best travellift in the area is 21.8 miles south down the Intracoastal Waterway at Gasparilla Marina. This multi-day excursion involves leaving a car there, bringing the Enterprise down, driving home, they do the work the next morning, drive back, bring the Enterprise home, then drive to go get the car. So, the night before, we dropped a car off in Gasparilla and planned to get to the Enterprise the next morning.

To go down by boat, you basically have three options: The ICW the whole way, go out to the Gulf and go in safely through a big inlet (which adds almost 10 more miles to the trip), or cut in at one of the smaller, less-marked shallower inlets, and, frankly, my lesser knowledge of the area combined with the changing sands and slight distrust of Navionics, had us opt for the ICW.

It would be a hot trip, all motoring, and six bridges to contend with. But all OK by me with our goal - the make the Enterprise more cool.

And so we started down the ICW from Venice, with our first bridge just ahead, the Hatchett Creek Bridge.

And after some radio calls and some timing waits (not every bridge is open-on-demand), we passed the Hatchett Creek Bridge, the Venice Avenue Bridge, Circus Avenue Bridge, Mannesota Key Bridge, the Tom Adams Bridge and the Grand Spring Bridge.

We puled into Gasparilla in under four hours (including a twenty-minute wait at Grand Spring) and headed on home.

The next morning, we arrived to find the Enterprise hauled and a new thru-hull in her hull just to the right of the keel. After a fast power wash, we were back on board for the voyage home. On checking my watch and knowing how much a stickler the Grand Spring bridge operator was on time, we accelerated to get to the bridge by noon, plowing through the marina at almost Warp 6 and through their channel at Warp 7. Time was tight, but thanks to some bridge maintenance, the opening was delayed to our favor and we passed through quickly enough after a five-minute wait.

The best was the Tom Adams bridge, whose operator seemed to have a perfect knack for timing approaching boats and opening/closing bridges - We flew through that one at full speed. Nice!

The four others were without incident and the Enterprise was back in spacedock (my slip) in just over a three hour voyage. All that was left to do was grab a beverage, drive back to get the other car, find some dinner and collapse.

Dinner, by the way, was at Sharkey's on The Pier in Venice -- our first experience at this famed beach-side restaurant, and now someplace we'd highly recommend for casual dining with an awesome view.

The next day, I met with the installer for the final phase. And, after a few hours, it was mission accomplished -- The Enterprise was now cooler -- with air conditioning!

That's 82 inside (only on for a little over an hour) with it being 96 outside. And, she'll get down to the low 70s if we want it to. Plus elimination of mold, mildew and humidity.

16,000 BTUs of power!! (insert Tim Allen grunts here.)

There are still some tweaks to go, including some cleaning up of the woodwork and the need to install an automatic bilge pump for the condensation.

So even during the hottest of Florida sun days, the Enterprise will always be cool.