Summer Home

Last week I moored Alana alongside my coast guard cutter (Grand Isle) in order to load seat cushions and other items I didn't want to try hauling in the dingy. She is now laying to her mooring at Hawthorne Cove Marina in Salem, MA where she will spend the next few months.

Today I installed a new radar antenna and tidied up the wiring of both the radar and Sirius antennas in the lazarette. After working for a couple hours I enjoyed relaxing in the cockpit watching the other boats come and go.

Alana's now about 80% of the way to where I want her. We're down to the details now.

You may have noticed "The Head." She is disturbing to some, but I find her to be somewhat of a lucky talisman. She is an expert sailor and has accompanied Mike (my brother) and me on a number of charters. I hope to take her along on my future travels. She is a good companion and frankly, I'm a little scared to disrespect her; she has a mean streak.

She Floats!

The big day finally arrived and I am happy to report that Alana floated. She was launched first thing this morning, very professionally I might add, and is now moored alongside my Coast Guard cutter. To my great relief both the engine and generator started up without a hitch and all her systems seem to have survived the winter.

This afternoon I installed the sails before returning to my apartment to stuff the car with cushions, bedding and other items which would be difficult to transport via dingy. I'll hump that stuff aboard tomorrow after work, and then install Alana's dodger and do some topside cleaning and waxing.

Ready to Float

Alana's ready for her launch tomorrow morning. Last week I finally relented and hired a couple of guys (U.S. citizens) to help put some wax on Alana, and got two coats of 3M wax on just before the onset of a rainy weekend. Today, I scrubbed down the topsides and made some adjustments the the automatic bilge pump. It is with a great sense of relief that I now slump back on my couch for a few hours of TV, confident that there is nothing more I can do to get Alana ready for her launch. Once she's floated tomorrow, I plan to moor her alongside my cutter where I will finish moving her gear aboard.

Done With Bottom Paint

Yesterday my Brother Mike helped put a second coat of anti-fouling paint on Alana's nether regions. The application of paint is a whole lot easier than the prep work and the weather was nice, so I don't think either of us found it too painful. Today, I stopped by the boat on the way to work and removed the tape we forgot to remove yesterday. It was pretty cold making the tape difficult to remove, but in the end it came off OK.

After speaking with the yard manager, it looks like the launch will occur some time in the first half of next week. I'll have to spend most of my non-working hours between now and then cleaning and waxing Alana's hull before she goes in the water, but can afford to wait on the topsides until she is afloat.

Bottom Paint

Once I found Alana (she had been moved to make room for Jeff and Pat's mast) I put a first coat of Micron CSC on the waterline and leading edges of the stem, keel, rudder and skeg. Tomorrow Mike and I will apply another coat and take care of a couple items aloft. I also took the opportunity to sort tools, ensuring that Alana's tool bag contains only one of each size wrench (standard & metric) and that all duplicates and rarely used tools were stowed in the backup bag.

Bottom Prep

Saturday was a wretched day. Bottom paint preparations are low on my list of favorite chores, just above waxing. Alana's bottom paint (Micron CSC) held up very well and was in good shape, but there were a few spots that needed to be sanded down to the epoxy barrier. I took some time to sand down the uppermost edge of bottom paint where it has built up over the years, creating a lip that tended to collect green scum. I then roughed the whole thing up with a 3M pad, but didn't get around to applying paint (it looked like rain).

It is looking less and less like I'll be ready to launch the week of May 11 as planned, so I managed to get a 2-week abeyance from the yard manager. This should allow me to get Alana ready without a mad panic and shortcuts, and after all, I have years and years of sailing just around the corner, so a couple of weeks of prolonged showers and cable TV will not kill me. Next weekend looks promising weatherwise, so I am hopeful that with the help of my brother Mike, Alana's underwater body will be ready for another year underwater.

Scrubbing Bubbles

Today, I scrubbed Alana's hull and cleaned the boottop. The idea was to figure out what was dirt and what was a gouge or scratch so that the I can get the hull something close to perfect before waxing.

I also rinced the antifreeze out of the water tanks, cycling both the forward and aft tanks two times each. I then intstalled a new Gull water filter and pumped out the bilges and shower drain.