Starting off with a bang

I know it's been a long time since my last post... we've been back in the states for a few months working, seeing family and friends and giving our house some much needed TLC (that's a whole different blog). But I'm writing this on Saralane as we bob at anchor in Mountain Point in Virgin Gorda. Nice.

I'll go back to the end of last season in a minute but first - our launch a few days ago.

Reuben picks up Saralane in the trailer

Maurice gives Reuben the high sign when the pads are properly placed

Riding in the trailer to the travelift

As has become our practice, we hang in the slings over the yard's lunch break so we can lower and paint the centerboard. Skip patched the "bite" in the centerboard while we were in the yard and it needed a few coats of paint too.

A long way up (or down, as the case may be)

Painting our much loved centerboard

With the centerboard paint dry, all that's left to do is raise the board before going back in the water. Skip climbs the long ladder and winches up the board as I wait below the boat with the Spectra sling in hand to secure the board in the up position. The board was most of the way up and that's where the BANG! comes in. It was the sound the centerboard made when the cable we installed last fall parted from the swage fitting and 800 pounds of board slammed back down in one swift soul crushing motion. There was a fraction of second of silence while we both registered what had happened; the next minute or two of conversation are unprintable. Needless to say this was stingingly disappointing. Visions of rough passages filled my mind and visions of expensive short hauls to try another fix filled Skip's. 

But... the travelift operator was waiting and other boats needed his attention. We had no choice but to pin the board back in the up position and go in the water. We're back to being a fixed shallow draft boat. 

All is not lost though. Everything else on the boat is in great shape (touch wood here) and we've mostly recovered our sunny outlook on life here in the Caribbean. We sat over drinks that night and started to think up new designs for a more robust cable system. We're open to suggestions. Seriously. 

There's lots more to cover, but I think a quickie summary of the end of last season will be enough for now. We spent some time in Lee Bay which is always quiet. The swimming here is great and we're often the only boat.

John H gets a refresher - the sun fades our non-marine grade Sharpie lettering/numbering

Burning man 

John H enjoys the fire too

Saralane alone in Lee Bay

With time on our hands we wandered over to St John to enjoy a few more nights in Francis Bay. Even with Maho Bay Camps closed, there are still lots of people on the beach and in the water.

Giant pelican? Mini yacht? Or is it just perspective....

Nope... it's definitely a giant pelican!

John H makes friends with the laughing gulls

We eventually hauled out and did all the grubby boat yard work we do each year. Sails off, dinghy deflated and put on deck, canvas cleaned and off, perishables given away, roach cookies made and spread around etc. This year we sanded and painted the bottom on this end instead of waiting until our launch to do it. This made us extra happy when we came back and didn't have to sand and paint. Why it took us four years to figure this out I'm not quite sure.

Skip paints. I photograph.

So - kind of a disjointed blog but hey, I'm out of practice! My repaired Mac is humming along nicely (more knocking on wood here) so I have no excuse for not blogging until/unless something else goes on the fritz. I'll leave you with one of many pretty night skies we still oooh and aaah at here. See you here again soon....