Launch Day

We gave ourselves 10 days to prepare to launch, but things ended up dragging on a bit, and we ended up delaying the launch by a couple of days. We hadn't made firm commitments with contractors in the yard, to book their time while we were there to work on the boat, and so some of this work happened rather late.

Finally, after 2 long weeks on the hard, it's splash day. We got almost all the work we wanted to, done. But it did come right down to the wire, with a mechanic coming for a final check, while the yard crew waited to get the yacht on the move to the travel-lift.

Johnny and his team in the yard carefully edged the yacht out from its corner in the back, through a gap they'd cleared in the days before, and out to the travel-lift. The travel-lift can measure the weight - we came in at 32 tons.

The launch went very smoothly, but I noticed I'd installed a sea-cock with its handle upside down, when we were in the water, so we had to be pulled up again so I could quickly flip it.

Mark had come to help us with the launch. We had to drop the stern tower and the back-stays, to fit into Spice Island's travel-lift. We'd really struggled to get the back-stays reattached, after the haul-out, but they went in quickly and easily, with Mark's touch.

Motored out around the point, into a strong swell and head-wind, to anchor in Woburn Bay. The crew were feeling a little queasy, this wasn't the nicest first day at sea experience, especially after a hot morning in the yard sun.

When the wind died down that afternoon, Mark came over again to help get the fore-sails up.

It's only when you're re-doing things that you really understand the choices and compromises that were made before. In re-rigging the fore-sails, we ran one furler line down the port side, assuming it'd make sense to split them up. But then the winch setup doesn't work as well, as the main sheet comes to the port fore winch. We'll re-rig it on a quiet day at anchor, somewhere.

Took Mark out for dinner at Le Phare Bleu marina, to say thanks, and goodbye for the next few weeks.

Navionics Track