1 June, 2016

Soooooooo………..

We rolled into Atlantic Yacht Basin a little after 18h00, and were directed to the Girl’s home away from home for the next 3 months or so.  She’s under a shed, but still in the water, which is pretty much fresh, as the marina is behind a lock and far from the ocean.  While she’s living here, she’ll get hauled for a fresh coat of bottom paint, and have her boot stripe raised (as part of it is currently below the waterline, and catching barnacles).  She’s also looking forward to having the techies from Northern Lights come in and install an experimental gadget aimed at alleviating our recurrent clutch problems.  Other boats with similar setups have had clutch problems as well, and NL has been looking for the right “test boat” to try out the laboratory guys’ proposed fix.  We’re it, so they’ll fly in from Washington state sometime this summer and work their voodoo on our recalcitrant generator.  After getting the Girl secured, we strolled out to the face dock, where the wake-making Krogen scofflaws were tied, to administer an appropriate helping of static to them.  After the good-natured (and tongue-in-cheek) tongue-lashing, we headed out for dinner.  El Toro Loco is a great little Mexican restaurant just a short walk from the boatyard, and a favorite of ours.  We three Krogen couples were joined by our mutual friends, Karen and Jeff, who were piloting their DeFever motoryacht north for the summer.  They say that wherever you have 2 or more Krogens, you have a party, so it was our duty to keep that adage alive.  A good time was had by all.

The next morning was the beginning of hammer time.  Over the next week, Alizann was cleaned and polished from the top of her mast to the bottom of her bilges.  Drippy-drips were fixed, and every nut and screw was tightened.  A couple of tired parts were replaced, the serpentine belt was changed, and filters exchanged.  Radars and the satellite dish were taken off the mast, so that their brackets could be sandblasted and repainted.  By the end of the week, we were “slap wore out”, but the Girl was exuding new-found energy.  I think she was a little disappointed when we told her that she needed to rest for a few months-the first time in a couple of years.  By the time September rolls around, she’ll probably fly out of that shed.

During the “Big Clean”, we packed up all of the stuff that we thought was indispensable when we left land 2 years ago, but haven’t used since.  In addition, all of our cold-weather clothes were packed up to bring back to dirt, as we didn’t anticipate being in less than tropical weather for the next couple of years.  We’ll box this stuff up and leave it back in Michigan so our pals back there can ship it to us when we need it again.  All computers were disconnected and packed so that new charts could be installed, and software upgraded with the help of reliable internet back in Michigan.  SCUBA rigs and cameras were boxed to head back to land for their much-needed maintenance visits.  Add in the 50-70# of Mahi in the freezer, and we had quite a load.

At Oh Dark-Thirty, we were on our way.

-See Ya in the Fall

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