Here We Go Again
Here we go again, back to Avante after a fantastic winter’s sojourn in Telluride! The cold temperatures and the abundant snow created superb conditions. The steeper chutes filled with snow, and all our Black and Double Black runs offered up some very adventurous skiing. Day after day –- it was wonderful, and, to her surprise, The First Mate skied more this year in Telluride than the nine previous years put together. Feeling toned and ready, on Monday, May 19th, we left our San Juan Mountains and headed northwest to the San Juan Islands. Mountains to Sea – A perfect contrast!
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Returning to one’s boat after it has been stored for a few months is always a lot of fun, as in fun = work. First, there’s getting Avante back in the water. Looking up at her, “beached” as she is, is always a shock. Sitting atop her deep keel, she looks so very much bigger out of the water. The Captain has no problem climbing up the spindly ladder to her deck.
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Once up there, he has no problem moving around. He is secure and comfortable even with the slight movement of Avante on her braces.
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Not so The First Mate. Finally to stop his sarcastic nagging, she climbs up with great care. She does a quick walk-about of the deck just to show him she can do it, but then it’s back to Terra Firma for her. If Mother Nature had wanted her up there, she would have given her wings and a body that bounced!
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Friday, May 23 – Today, Avante is going to “splash”! A machine similar to a remote-controlled Tinker Toy is used to lift and move boats around the boat yard. The man at the lower left is holding the remote which controls the lift. The wheels on the lift can be individually rotated, and with dexterous coordination and infinite patience, he maneuvers the machine into position placing Avante squarely in the middle.
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Two men lift and connect the huge canvas-covered slings beneath Avante‘s girth. These slings will have to support all of Avante’s 18 tons.
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There she is – on the move! Notice how tight the alley is and how close the other boats are. They don’t let just anyone drive this thing! Not The First Mate that is for sure. Nope — She does not think that she and that remote would work together well at all!
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Now on the loading dock, Avante is slowly lowered into water. Ah-h-h-h—-Almost back in her element. Feels so good!
As her keel drops into the water, her 52 feet of midnight blue hull now looks a more manageable size.
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We have 6 days to clean, organize and re-rig Avante. The Captain starts topside with a good hosing and scrubbing to erase a winter’s accumulation of dirt and dust. All manor of stuff have to be re-attached, not the least of which are brand-new sails.
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The First Mate works below, hardly seeing the light of day for the next three. Here she is manhandling the unwieldy mattress to make the bed. Fitted sheets are great, but only once they’re on the bed!
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There’s the inevitable mold growth to attack in various dark cabinets. There’s organization and reorganization of what was originally thought to be organized. It’s an ever-evolving process. Storage on a cruising sailboat is a critical issue. There is limited storage space which is not all easily accessible. You want to have things you will need onboard, and you want to be able to locate them quickly. Conversely, you do not want a lot of stuff which you do not use. That just takes up valuable space and gets in the way.
The First Mate has attempted to keep things organized with a number of Excel spreadsheets. She now has files labeled: “Avante: Food Aboard”, “Avante: Meds Aboard”, “Avante: Stuff Aboard”, “Avante: Sue’s Stuff Aboard”, and “Avante: Sue’s Clothes Aboard”. It could be said that she is being way too conscientious or compulsive, but all this tracking of items came about when she kept finding items she had forgotten were on the boat or she could not recall whether she had a particular item onboard. Tired of those mental gymnastics, her spread sheet lists were created.
Finding things that are stored on the boat is way more difficult than simply opening the closet doors and scanning the shelves like she does at home. Boats have clever hidey holes built into their designs, and that is where many things are stored. To access some of these places requires moving things or even removing drawers. It’s not a quick task.
On her Excel Spreadsheets, she uses a code to identify where various stuff is located. The concept is sound, but complex to implement, as it is very hard to come up with descriptive names for such hidden storage spots. For instance, behind the back of one sofa cushion, there is a drawer for storage. How does one describe that? Starboard Sofa, Corner Seat Back Drawer? Okay, not put that into initials on a spreadsheet. It would be an ungainly SSCSBD which even if used, how would one ever remember what it stood for? To make matters more complicated, underneath that drawer is a whole cavity for storage. Now, how does one describe these places? What simple name does one give these devilish locations? She challenges anyone to come up with a simple identification system.
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Lacking such a system, her spreadsheets have evolved into something so complicated that only she can decipher them, but the good news is that she can find where everything from the replacement O-ring for the Cappuccino machine to the spare candle for the dining table has been stashed. It may not sound very important, but when one needs an item one knows one has but can’t remember where it is, that item becomes truly significant. Not being able to find it becomes a major irritant, and one does not need that on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean.
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The Captain’s biggest job is to get all the various systems on the boat working again. Some of them were winterized and have to be purged and reset. Many others suffer from 6 months of not being used. We will not be able to test some things like the autopilot until we are out of the marina, but The Captain methodically starts up and checks out everything that he can before we leave the dock.
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Six days later, we are done, or as done as one ever gets on a sailboat. The bright new sails are up, crisp and ready to catch the wind. On the trip up the Inside Passage to Alaska last year, we did not use our sails very much. We hope to change that this year and have replaced our Mainsail, Jib and Spinnaker. The process of returning Avante to the water moved forward a bit smoother and quicker this year. We are advancing on that learning curve. Tomorrow, we set sail, and the adventures of 2008 begin.