Went a year without sucking something up... then

[MrMoose]

While in Bimini, I jinxed myself by saying that I had never sucked something up that gave me a problem. Never had to clean out weeds or debris. Never had to use the reverse trick. After crossing back I decided to take a beach run up to the Hillsborough inlet and decompress along the ICW on our way to Harbour Towne Marina. At the first 25 mph section of the icw, I sucked up a plastic bottle cap as I was accelerating. I thought of the Jimmy Buffett song as "I limped on back home".

 

[Julian]

Looks like you were almost all the way through it! I gather you couldn't cut it out?

 

[MrMoose]

You're right, it almost sliced through it. I couldn't reach it. The only way that I knew that something was up there was because I got a vibration at 4K rpm, and got no performance from the starboard drive. Once home, I used a 24" pry bar to pop it off.

 

[MrMoose]

I thought that the tour was a perfect way to end our Bimini trip. It was too rough to comfortably snorkel off Pompano and my boys were tired from the crossing. My crew had no idea that I was cruising on one engine. They would have gotten concerned and upset if they knew. Just docking the boat is a major event with my crew. It's like the sky is falling and the boat is sinking and nobody knows what to do in such a stressful situation. That's why I usually gassed up the boat by myself while in Bimini. As I explained to @shane hric while docking after refueling in Bimini, somethings are just easier to do on your own. The highlight of the ICW leg was when my wife's hat blew off, but I luckily retrieved it before it sank.
@ClemsonTiger , thanks for the intel on the Hillsborough/ICW route.