Haulout

Well this final blog of ours has been a while in coming due to being a very busy week. We stayed out in the anchorage on Friday after our arrival and a quick check in at customs. The anchorage was rolly, lots of traffic and has high currents so it is not a fun spot to be for long. Fortunately early Saturday morning we were able to get a dock in Harbourtown Marina, not far from Ken and Merydie. The next few days were busy getting a storage unit (a 5’ X 10’ size) and filling it with stuff from the boat so that it and the boat could breathe and not get moldy. We thought a 5’ X 5’ unit would do us, but all they had was the bigger sizes. The funny part is that we were hoping to rent out the other half – but as you see by the picture, it is full! How did the boat float!!!!

We had fun getting together with other cruisers during this week, the weather was very hot so the end of the workday was mid afternoon when we would retire to the pool. We were fortunate to have Ken and Merydie around as we borrowed their car way too much until we got our own. They were scheduled for haulout on the next Friday and we were to be 5 days later. There were many trips to Riverside Marina to ask/beg/plead to come out earlier…….

On Friday morning I went with Ken and Marydie on their boat for their haulout, while there, I was told to bring over our boat to be ready – excellent! Here are some pictures of getting ready to be hauled. Notice the fellow in the mask – no he is not a terrorist with a bomb to blow up the boat, he is the operator of the lift and is using a remote control unit to emulate the controls on the lift. The mask? not sure – I didn’t want to ask, especially when lifting our boat :) We were hauled fairly quick and were out by early afternoon. Note the filthy bottom, no wonder we were not motoring as fast as we should have been, of course we had been in the water for 11 months. Our water line was the worst even though I had cleaned it many times already. We will need to raise the water line next year (due to all the extra gear on board…..) so I told the pressure washer guy to not to worry about peeling off the water line paint.

The next 3 days were spent “summerizing” the boat, which is new to us. I took the “winterization” list and modified it, hope I got everything but it is definitely easier. One of the biggest issues is that it is very hot when doing any work….of course we are not complaining after the winter most places have had this year.

Besides all the stuff in the storage shed these are the bags in our hotel room to come home – where did we put all this stuff on the boat? How did it float? We also have another 3 - 4 bags at Marg and Jacks to come back as well!

Anyways, the plan is to drive a vehicle back to Nova Scotia with one of the “drive away” services so we will see how much we can bring…

Well this concludes our trip of 2014/2015, we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you. Hopefully we were able to pass on some new and interesting information – so until next time……. Fair Winds,

Richard and Heather