Days turned into weeks. The Florida heat got heavier, the bills got larger, and somehow we were still sitting on the hard at Lauderdale Marine Center waiting for our second shipment attempt from Finland.
After our initial shipment showed up looking like it bounced down the side of a rocky mountain, Oceanvolt had agreed to send another replacement motor along with their redesigned flanges. All we wanted was one good motor installation, successful calibrations, and a chance to finally get out of South Florida before hurricane season really settled in.
Simple enough…right?
Round Two Begins
To Oceanvolt’s credit, they moved quickly to source another replacement motor along with their newly redesigned flanges. Why were they redesigned? That’s a question we never really got a clear answer to. They insisted the flanges were not the cause of our original motor failures—which, at this point, we were now replacing on our own dime—but they included the updated versions for free anyway. So…I guess better safe than sorry? Why flanges matter.
Maybe the redesigned flanges would somehow keep the motors from self-destructing this time around.
It was also about this time that we managed to convince our insurance company to give us a one-month extension to get north of Hatteras and out of hurricane season danger territory. All it cost us was another 2.5 boat bucks. CHA-CHING. But a bit of a relief valve should something happen with the boat regardless of weather. We were “officially” okay to be here.
On June 12th, Oceanvolt shipped replacement motor attempt #2 (via UPS this time) with an expected arrival date of June 16th, a day that came and went with no sign of delivery. Apparently shipping oversized freight from Finland to the U.S. is significantly harder than the tracking estimates suggest.
At this point, our expectations had dropped considerably. We were no longer asking for “fast.” We were simply hoping the box arrived in one piece.
Killing Time
Without much to do waiting on the this next shipment, we found other ways to be productive. I started planning our trip up the ICW researching distances, services available, anchorages, and hazards along the way. Once we were on the move, we would need to make the most of the daylight hours to meet our slightly extended timeline to get north of Cape Hatteras by August 1st.
We also have been slowly stripping down the mast and boom to prep the rigging for removal once we were back in the water. You know, because apparently one major project at a time wasn’t stressful enough, we were also replacing our 2-year old rigging. (Read about that saga HERE.)
Kevin also started removing the old Oceanvolt flanges so we’d be ready once the new ones arrived and we could save money by not having someone else do it.
And finally, while the boat may have been stranded on jack stands, there was no reason she couldn’t at least look (and smell) good while waiting to heal. I deep cleaned the interior.
Honestly…who DOESN’T want their floating home smelling aggressively like blueberries during a full mechanical breakdown?
Finally…A New ‘New’ Port Motor
On June 19th, the UPS tracker finally updated: OUT FOR DELIVERY.
UPS dropped the crate outside Nordic Marine’s shop and left. 4 days late—but at this point we’d take it. And now the moment of truth. Did this one make it unscathed or did it befall the same fate as the last?
Outside of the box looked good, but on opening, the packaging still looked questionable. This time, however, we had the before photos which clearly showed it WAS customs that likely was the culprit. They had completely unpacked the original shipping materials and basically tossed everything back into the crate with zero concern whatsoever.
So at least now we knew why shipment #1 looked like it survived a small war. Though Oceanvolt didn’t help themselves or us with the initial packaging.
And because nothing had been easy, they also managed to send nine incorrectly sized washers for the newly redesigned flanges. Too large. Didn’t fit. Thankfully Nordic Marine had the correct size on hand. But seriously…come on guys.
Once everything finally arrived intact, Nordic Marine moved quickly. Within two days they had the new port motor and saildrive prepped, installed and operational.
For the first time in weeks, it felt like we might actually be making forward progress. No seriously, for real this time!
Because the Oceanvolt systems require remote software updates and calibrations directly from Finland, we still couldn’t fully complete the install ourselves locally. Since they are 8 hours ahead of us they were closed for the day. We would have to wait for their offices to open the following day to complete the last steps.
The Starboard Motor Clearly Felt Left Out
The next morning, we got up before dawn to make our way by bike and tri-rail to the yard at dawn so we could jump on a conference call first thing with Finland to finalize calibrations and test everything.
Lo and Behold…The new port motor looked good and sounded good! It passed its checks. We let out a huge sigh of relief!
Then we fired up the starboard motor. And almost immediately…. GRINDING.
We sat there staring at each other in disbelief as the now-familiar grinding echoed out of the starboard side. The exact same sound that had started this entire saga with the port motor. You honestly cannot make this stuff up.
At that moment, we stopped asking whether we had experienced a bad motor…and started wondering whether something much bigger was wrong with the entire system. Were they actually capable of meeting the expectations laid out in the glossy marketing brochures? Electrically? Maybe. Structurally? We are not so sure.
And somehow, after all of this, we were STILL stuck on the hard in Fort Lauderdale.
Trying to Get Answers
By this point, our communication with Oceanvolt had become increasingly direct.
We explained that we had now spent thousands on delays, shipping, yard costs, replacement components, and extended time on the hard while still lacking a fully reliable propulsion system during hurricane season.
More frustrating than the mechanical failures themselves was the growing realization that even relatively simple troubleshooting often required remote connections and support directly from Finland. Local technicians could only go so far without approval, software access, or remote calibration assistance from Oceanvolt HQ.
We repeatedly made ourselves available day or night for troubleshooting calls, remote access sessions, or system diagnostics—whatever was needed to finally get both motors operational again.
At this point, we weren’t looking for perfection anymore. We just wanted a reliable way to safely get north.
When Life Gives You Lemons
Later that day after we biked from LMC to the TriRail, rode the TrialRail back to Boynton Beach where we were staying, instead of going straight home, we took a detour. We sat at Copperpoint Brewing Company with a very tasty beer flight in front of us and tried to remind ourselves of something important:
We may have been down with the boat, but we refused to be down with life. That’s one lesson this whole ordeal kept reinforcing. If life gives you lemons—or in our case, broken motors, shipping delays, and surprise invoices, you can still take a deep breath and move through the adventure at hand and find simple joys.
For a few hours, sitting at Copperpoint, life felt normal again. No shipping trackers. No warranty discussions. No bearings, calibrations, or freight companies. Just good beer and a reminder that this adventure was supposed to be fun.
When life gives you lemons, you can either let it crush you…or you can go find citrus ales and wits! Enjoy life, having fun wherever your plans unexpectedly stop you en route is the key to happiness!
Of course, we woke up the next morning back in reality: We still had a grinding starboard motor, mounting bills, and no clear answer as to why any of this was happening. It was finally time to dig deeper into the history of these motors and figure out if there was a bigger story hiding beneath the surface. Stay tuned!