Monday, April 11, 2011

The Journey Has To Start Somewhere

April has always been a confused month for us. We want it to warm up, but not too warm because we have real manual labor to perform to get the boat ready to go into the water. We'd love for it to be dry but it never is. We opened the boat the beginning of April and prayed nothing crawled out. Then came the critical inspection for any winter damage. None, thank you God. It was a beautiful day - sunny with temperatures in the 80s. It would have been a great day to wash the boat except that the boat yard had not connected all the water lines. I guess I will have to wait until the temperatures drop back to down to the 50s. So we contented ourselves by unloading the car of stuff we brought out to load onto the boat. Stuff like tools, bottom paint, a new TV to replace the one that was stolen over the winter, and assorted cleaning products.

Attached are a couple of pics of Alize as she sits "on the hard". A good washing, waxing, reinstalled canvas, the sails and a few other odds and ends, and she'll be ready to head out to our homeport - Dock of the Bay Marina. Keep your fingers crossed for decent weather and especially a good weather day on Tuesday, May 10th when Alize is scheduled for launch. That will begin the journey that will end in December in Florida.