Dash & Cash Before We Splash

Even though we reserve our splash date and time just a couple days in advance, the last minute dash to get everything done just before we splash is always hectic. There always seems so much to do and so little time to accomplish it even though it's a planned event. Because the antifouling is always done at the last minute, we applied the last coat the day before we splashed which meant removing the masking tape and doing several other odd chores like replacing the hull zinc on splash morning. We were up with the sun. I waited till the very end to get the laundry done (just one more load) in hopes of limiting the amount of sweaty old t-shirts and painting clothes we'd have aboard before I had the chance to do laundry again. Our bunk had clean sheets. David filled the water tanks to capacity. He washed down the decks which were filthy with soot and bushfire debris along with gravel and boatyard grime. Since we have no refrigeration for this trip, the last minute provisioning of freshies would have to wait till we were in the water and ready to head out.

I cleaned and vacuumed below while we had fresh water and power available and stowed anything that might jar loose with the move and the splash. We disposed of last minute trash while a trash bin was handy. David had downloaded all of our Yahoo emails into a new folder, so that we could sync with SailMail and get shadow mail up and running again for our upcoming passage. He'd also renewed our BuoyWeather subscription. We had plugged in every possible electronic device and battery to charge them up while we still had land AC power. We'd sent as many blogs and pix to Gentry as we could in advance because the odds of having wifi aboard while out in the mooring field were pretty slim. I paid our boatyard bill (No cash … no splash). Ouch … that hurt the old bank account!

We removed the covers from the windscreens and instruments and rigged docklines. A forklift drove up ...they removed the A/C unit from the coach roof hatch. All the scaffolding was cleared away. A last minute cuppa before the ladder was taken away … the last thing to go as soon as the TraveLift arrived.

We're ready … let the splash begin.