Boat Transport

Many prefer transporting their boats by sea carrier rather than enduring the time, discomfort, fuel costs, wear and tear, etc of taking the boats themselves.

TodayI helped Robert take his boat Estelle to the "Dockwise" boat transporter waiting at Bahia Falsa, just east of La Paz. The Dockwise vessel is a semi submersibe float-on/float-off boat carrier. The hull of the carrier is flooded to the required depth to allow fully rigged sailboats to motor in and be tied up. Divers place temporary chocks under the boats and these are later welded to the steel deck.

We circled the carrier for about 90 minutes before we were called to be the first boat in. When they lowered the hull a small sail boat that had been brought from the Northwest of the US motored out before we went in. The next stop for this carrier is Freeport in the Bahamas.

Al said that he had received a quotation of $20,000 to carry his large cabin cruiser to the US East Coast. He calculated that it would take $16,000 for him and his wife to do the trip, not to mention wear and tear on the engine.

The third photo shows a dry deck on the carrier.

On the fourth photo note the small sail boat tucked in the aft port corner of the carrier. The following photo shows the boat on the way out to its new home in the Sea of Cortez.

The crew were Ukrainian and were sharp, alert, professional, and chatted away in their mother tongue.

Next is a shot of our approach into the carrier. Al has his back to the camera. The fellow in red is Larry. The boy is Christian and that's his father in the blue shorts.

I took the photo of Alegria next to us because she is from Pass Christian, Mississippi. As I took the shot I commented that I had been raised near there, in Mobile Alabama. Larry next to me said that he had been born and raised in Mobile. He lived in Prichard and Chickasaw and went to Vigor High. Like me he joined the US Air Force and like me he didn't like it. Small world.

The last photo shows the tricky disembarkation.