Back in the Water - Moving Day!

It's a little later than I had hoped for, but I received word on Friday morning that Seas The Day was back in the water.  So yesterday I loaded up all the "boat crap" (after spending Friday evening digging though the house finding it all), and headed down to Rock Hall.

This time as I walked out onto the dock, there she was (unlike last November, when I walked out and found her missing).  Wind had blown from the north for a few days, blowing water out of the bay resulting in a very low tide... there would be no sailing today.

Seas The Day is back at her berth!

The pile of "boat crap" ready for loading.

The other reason there would be no sailing is there are no sails yet.  Well, they're here... just piled up below deck.  In their rush to get the boats launched, they're running a bit behind some of the commissioning work.  

Low (and muddy) water level looks a bit green.

Starboard aft cabin is filled with jib and Bimini

All this adds up to the fact that this is NOT up to Vicky's standards.  While I'd appreciate her help toting everything aboard, I'm grateful that I don't have to drop everything and immediately swab the decks.  We'll wait until the yard guys are finished installing the sails and Bimini and then worry about achieving spic and span.

With the boat crap all successfully transferred from our kitchen to the boat, I busied myself with stowing as much as I could.  For now, the bedding will stay in the garbage bags on the salon seating as the aft stateroom is filled as shown above and the forward stateroom is filled with the Eisenglass for the dodger and all the battens for the mainsail.

Once the bulk was stowed, I then started on my own checklist for the season.  First up was to update the firmware for the electronics.  In my real life, I'm amazed that scientists will buy an expensive piece of analytical equipment and then fail (or refuse) to keep it's firmware up to date.  So setting a good example, I connected to the marina's WiFi and reached out to Raymarine for an update.

While the update proceeded (about 30 min), I dug through my bags and filed the boat documentation certificates and also put the new registration stickers on the base of the mast.  We technically had a month or so remaining on Vicky's fishing license, but I knew that we would forget to renew it in May so I did that at the beginning of the season.  We added a crab sticker this year.

As I put those on, the top sticker reminded me that I need to request a new USCG VSC, so I double-checked the safety drawer and the fire extinguishers.  (Note to self... still need to test the propane system.)

Finally, I went out and checked the engine hours... 132.0!  Since we were at 49.0 a year ago, that meant that we motored for 83 hours last year.

Camera had to be held about 6 inches off the floor to catch the display.

Then I closed up the boat and headed home... making sure to set the battery switch at #2 (the house bank) so I don't return to a dead boat like last fall.