Titusville - Returning a car and visitors

We had visitors aboard Fleetwing! Hoolie liked them too.

We had a hard time finding a car for our trip from Deltaville. Enterprise ran out of cars so we tried Hertz but had to go all the way to Hampton, VA. So far, so good. We found the car already had 77,000 miles on it, a 2019 model - I guess it was the best they could get. Most of it worked except for the windshield wipers which had no fluid. I bought a new supply but that didn't fix the problem - the fluid pump for the windshield was defective. With the road haze being thrown up on the windshield, you need the water fluid to be active for clear vision. I wound up clearing the windshield by hand with a rag at every stop. 

 

From yesterday's haulout - nevermind unscrewing the through hull, just grind it off - quicker

Ok, fine, no big deal. I returned the car this afternoon but the clerk said it was too dirty, that I had to wash it myself or incur a rewash fee! After 40 years of renting from Hertz, I had never encountered that upon returning a car. On top of that, they wanted to charge me $400 for a couple of "dog hairs" they said they found on the rear floor. I was seeing red. I took photos of everything and I'm taking my case to their customer service. We'll see what happens. Hertz used to be very customer responsive but this seems to be a new Hertz after coming out of bankruptcy last year with new owners. If you're renting from Hertz now, be careful.

As is often the case in marinas we visit, several couples came by to say hi. Captain Bill runs a boat delivery service and uses the Bob423 tracks and info on the ICW Cruising Guide Facebook Group. I am finding a wide range of boaters that reference the Guide and tracks, I hope they have find them useful.

We are still getting Fleetwing into shape. We have yet to store everything and the biggest task is ridding the decks of all the bird droppings, ugh!. Then there's the teak, the list goes on... We will probably not leave until Wednesday or Thursday when calmer weather returns. We want a nice, relaxing trip south, we've had enough excitement already.