I get up at six before it gets too hot. I have a long list and work through it. Brad soon joins me and together we make good progress.
Wash deck and all canvas to get it salt free. Once dry take dodger and bimini off and store below decks. Take outboard off the dinghy, flush it with fresh water and then run it dry and store on the pushpit. The dinghy gets stored upside down on the foredeck. Both are beasts and require a halyard and winch to move. Below decks all the bedding and towels and clothes, fresh from the laundry, get vacuum bagged and stored. It’s going to be humid and moisture control and the fight against mold is the #1 priority. Bathrooms cleaned and toilets and the black water tank are flushed and emptied. Fridge and freezer unplugged and unloaded.
We’re sweaty and exhausted by noon and quickly grab a (very tasty) sandwich at the Marina restaurant. Our haulout slot is at 1p. This is my sixth or seventh haul but still I am fascinated by the process. Below is a play-by-play description – feel free to skip, if you’re less interested in the technical minutiae.
We leave the dock and motor into the haulout basin. The giant boat lift stands ready and so does the crew. The big slings are positioned where the hull is the strongest with the help of a diver in the water.
And within just a few minutes JACE is lifted out, hanging in her slings looking a little forlorn.
The lift brings her on land where she rests on her keel in the slings while a pressure wash removes barnacles and soft growth. A tractor carefully maneuvers a hydraulic sled under her that takes her weight and lifts her off her keel. The slings come off and the lift is moved out of the way. Step 1 has been completed.
Ever so slowly the tractor drives the sled to her designated parking spot. She gets a front row position closest to the water. Good or bad, we don’t know. Before the sled is moved into her spot, the hurricane cradle is set up and the large concrete tie-down blocks are positioned. Then the sled moves in and concludes step 2.
In the final step 3 the cradle’s stands are erected against her hull and supported by a number of additional chocks.
It takes a long time to get right, have JACE exactly in the middle and level (the crew pours water on her decks to observe the flow and make sure nothing accumulates). Only then is the sled pulled out from under her and she is strapped down to the concrete fix points. Done!
A ladder is set up and tied to the toe rail and we are allowed back aboard. It is quite high up there – 2 meter draft is not nothing.
By now it is almost 5 and we are ready to call it a day. We power down all the systems, get our bags off her, and close all the hatches. Time to go home. The rest we’ll do tomorrow.
We go to Brad’s house; his family is so sweet to let me stay there until my return flight on Friday. After a shower we enjoy a beer and the amazing view from their deck and later have amazing Lebanese food.
It’s been a long and successful day. Final bits and a discussion of various refit projects are on the menu for tomorrow.