b'MEMBER NEWSMEMBER NEWS Hurricane-damaged Lady ChadwickReturns to the WaterT he Lady Chadwick, the flagship vessel of the Captiva Cruises fleet, has finally made her way back to the water after beingdamagedinHurricaneIanin2022. Captiva Cruises, a PVA member, operates out of McCarthys Marina in Captiva Island, Fla.According to a report by WINK News, it took approximately an hour of preparing the 75-ton boat before the crew was able to lift the vessel and move it into the waters of San Carlos Is-land, Fla.The ship had been taken out of the water in early September for inspection and maintenance, and was scheduled to be back in operation by November. The aftermath of the hurricane found the boat about 450 ft. from where it had been and positioned on top of other boats. The 65-ft vessel carries 150 diners and sight-seers from Captiva Island to Cabbage Key in Florida. Co-owner Bob Rando reported that there is still a lot of work to do on the interior of the vessel before it will be ready to returnmonth before Lady Chadwick is carrying pas- Playtime, Santiva, and Adventurewere able to service. Windows were blown out, and el- sengers again.to be moved prior to the storm and were un-ements like the ceiling, walls, insulation, anddamaged. Lady Chadwick was out of the water carpets will need to be repaired or replaced.Captiva Cruises returned to operation in Jan- in the middle of maintenance and was unable Theyestimateitwillbeapproximatelyauary this year. The companys other boats to make the trip with the other vessels. Afterthehurricane,thecompanytraveled back to Captiva to attend to their property there.Theyhelpedtoshuttleemployeesof South Seas Island Resort, as well as a resto-ration company. Throughout the recovery period since the hur-ricane, the company didnt lay off any of their employees.Instead,everyonetookonother duties such as working on the docks. They are so valuable to us, Rando said in an interview with Guflshore Business. We didnt wanttohavetolaythemoff.Wetoldour employees; were going to keep them paid and keep their benefits. We committed to them, and they committed to us. Our docks needed to be PHOTO COURTESY OF WINK NEWSworked on. We needed to pay somebody to fix the dock. Why not pay our own people? They were happy to do it. Theyre great workers. A talented group of people. Theyre great boat captains. But theyre also great at everything.FOGHORN 32'