Lady Chadwick’s back on the water after Hurricane Ian

Lady Chadwick has her sea legs back.

After about an hour of making sure the 75-ton boat was secured with straps, the crew finally lifted her up and into the water on San Carlos Island.

She was taken out of the water in early September for routine maintenance and was supposed to be back by November. But thanks to Hurricane Ian, the beast of a boat wound up getting tossed into another boat on land. Now it’s been a tough struggle to get this boat back to where the crews know she won’t sink.

Lady Chadwick can hold around 150 people and normally takes people off Captiva and brings them around Cabbage Key and Useppa.

It’s going to take a little more time before she can host again, but it’s a great step toward recovery not only for this company, but for Captiva as well.

“She’s a big girl, steel boat,” said Bob Rando, owner of Captiva Cruises. “She’s tough.”

Rando is part-owner of the Lady Chadwick.

He knows she is tough after seeing her survive Hurricane Ian.

“The morning of the storm myself and my partner Brad came down to the boat to plug all the open holes to the sea. So we plugged the shaft tubes, we put the keel cooler cofferdams and said a prayer,” Rando said.

The prayer worked a bit.

Even though Lady Chadwick is back in the water, there’s still a lot of work to be done on the inside. It could take about a month until she is ready to host some guests.

“The windows got blown out the interior of the boat also got destroyed. The ceiling, the walls, the insulation, the carpeting, but you know, they’re easily replaceable,” Rando said. “We look forward to being a part of many, many memories to come.”