03: The Refit
Splash & Step

Splash & Step

Sunday, a few final projects: painting the boot stripe, lubing all the sea cocks and making sure they can open/close easily, loading all of our belongings from “the burrito” onto Free Range.

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More taping and sanding…

 

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A fresh coat of paint!

 

Monday we splashed Free Range (dropped her in the water!). Paul loaded her up on his giant truck and drove her over to Sailcraft Marina. Stephane stood in the cockpit with a white PVC pole to clear any wires that she might run into on along the way. I brought up the rear, taking video from The Rogue. The guys at Sailcraft put her on the travel lift (this giant machine with two straps that holds the boat up, moves it to the water, and then lowers her in.

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All loaded up and ready to go.
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We ran into a little problem trying to move Free Range – the truck was stuck so we had to get a second truck to pull the truck AND Free Range out.

 

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In the travel lift.

 

Once we got her in the water, it was Mast Time: we cleaned it with rubbing compound, waxed it, ran messenger lines through to set it up for new lines that we later purchased, and then went shopping for lines. Mark the rigger sent us to West Marine with a shopping list (120 feet of 7/16 white w/red fleck, 100 feet of 3/8 line w/green fleck, etc.). Then he showed us how to splice the lines (very impressive to us).

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The messenger line is the littler line that you tie and tape to the real/original line. Then you pull it through the mast and tie it off. Then you can remove the old/original line and when you have new line, you use the messenger line to pull it through the mast.

 

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Attaching the spreaders.
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Cleaning and waxing.

 

 

Today we stepped the mast (attached the mast to the sailboat). By “we”, I mean the amazing and talented crew at Sailcraft Services. These guys are awesome. They each have their speciality (engines, riggers, painters, carpenters, etc.) and they are each so kind and helpful to us. They know we are total novices and are doing all they can to help us and to teach us as well. We are trying to be super sponges and soak it all in, but it is a lot!

 

On a side note…

Stephane is in his element: trouble-shooting, fixing, asking questions, connecting the dots, teaching me; up and working before the sun rises and still tinkering away after the sun has long since set; staying positive through IT ALL…I have always been so proud of him but the past two weeks I have discovered a whole new level of pride in and awe of my husband. He is, quite simply, the best.

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