Miami Connections

This seems a little weird. Maybe it’s not as weird as it seems. After all, this is Miami; a giant city. But it isn’t. It’s really Coconut Grove, in Dade County, a small part of Greater Miami.

I called the local West Marine to look for starter solenoid (Cole Hersee M202.) They have a new starter button, but no real heavy-duty intermittent-style solenoids.

Then I went to the Cole Hersee web site to get all the distributors in Miami and march down the list to see who’s got an M202. 

I started with Hopkins-Carter Marine. They have an electrical department that’s an official Cole Hersee distributor. And they’re reasonably close. Close in the global sense of being somewhere in Dade county. A bus-train-bus kind of journey.

Ronnie at Hopkins-Carter used to work at Crook & Crook, which is much closer to where we’re anchored. Ronnie told us to call his buddy Manny; Manny could order the thing for the afternoon drop off. 

Really.

I called Manny; he placed the order. The truck could arrive any time between two-ish and four-ish. 

I didn’t call any other local Cole Hersee distributors because the Ronnie-Manny-Crook&Crook connection was so fortuitous. Why tempt fate? I say we go with a bird in the hand instead of beating the bush hoping for yet more birds.

We took the 249 Circulator bus (25¢) up to West Marine to get the starter button. Ann at West Marine reminded us to say “hi” to Ray who works at Crook & Crook.

Then we walked the mile up US 1 to Crook & Crook. We said “hi” to Ray and Manny. Now we’re camped out at Dunkin’ Donuts to wait for the truck to arrive.

How did we get into the loop of four local folks in the marine hardware business? Maybe we have discovered some good people that we can rely on.

More Weirdness

We’re crossing 27th at Dixie Highway. The crew of Dream Ketcher is driving a borrowed car to get transmission parts up at Shell Hardware.

The odds of finding each other are low. But. Not all that low. We’re both fixing our boats. Why wouldn’t we be visiting all these businesses up on 27th? The “at the same time” part is a bit of a surprise.

They have a fair amount of work. Two of their transmission mounting bolts sheared off. They had to get towed to the dock. They have to reassemble transmission and engine and then realign the shaft. Ouch.

We’re hoping to get the electrical problems sorted out so we can get to a ball under our own power. Otherwise, we’ll be following Dream Ketcher and getting towed in closer so we can get a mechanic onto Red Ranger.

© Steven Lott 2021