We were ready to trade this view in for a water view. Let’s say good bye to being on the hard.
The final preparation steps included painting the bottom, a job NO ONE looks forward to or enjoys. I dare you to say otherwise. Our bottom was in good shape so it just got a touch up for this year. Bottom paint is outrageously expensive so there is no need to be frivolous or wasteful with it.
I taped the boot stripe and Al did the painting.
This year I was present and active for Kindred Spirit‘s launch. The actual launch was perfectly uneventful and much the same as previous years. I have no interesting, scary, or funny stories to tell which is a good thing. I did take note that the date was May 3rd. May 3, 2020 was that fateful day when I fell backwards off of the swim platform on the hard. Moving from land to the slip relieves me.
Kindred Spirit in the sling of the travel lift. She is the only boat in the yacht club that has stabilizers so Al is always mindful to remind everyone where they are so the sling is fitted properly under the hull.
In the well and ready to be lowered. After the boat is lowered, we hop aboard, the slings are removed and we back her out.
Before and After – Empty slip D-13 is now occupied by Kindred Spirit again.
May 3rd is an early launch date but we decided that it would be much nicer to finish interior preparations for the season in the water. We stayed overnight several times over the next two weeks as we worked on the boat.
MJ and Dean are the first onboard dinner guests of 2022. Take out from Chesters Barbecue. Yum!
We needed a shakedown trip and planned an overnight to West Harbor, Fishers Island. We watched the weather forecast and chose 3 good looking days. LOL. Fickle forecasts seem to be the norm. We select the best days of the week and then they flip and flop.
Foggy morning looking towards land and foggy looking out towards the water.
Since we were just hanging around on the dock, we were able to see and help Jallao when she was launched, extremely early at 7:15 am and in the rain.
The weather forecast for our last day flipped and flopped again so that we take that shakedown trip, but just for the day.
The dinghy got its own shakedown run. Don’t worry about the smoke when the engine was first started. That’s just the oil that was used during the winterizing process. It quickly burned off.
We still have fuel in our tanks but made a decision to take on some more with the expectation that the cost will only get higher with the holiday weekend approaching an d most likely even higher in the near future. 😏😩😬 A look at Al’s face will tell you that this is the highest price per gallon we have ever paid.
We leave the high fuel price behind us and begin to smile again as we each take our turn at the helm on the short trip.
It was good to see our favorite local traffic – UCONN’s Project Oceanology and the New London ferry passing by Ledge Light.
Everything worked!!!! WooHoo! Autopilot, depth finder, speed, chart plotter, stabilizers – check. You just never know what gremlins might invade your ship over the cold winter months. It’s a relief when things work they were they are supposed to work.
Although a haze hung over the water when we departed, the sun greeted us when we arrived in West Harbor.
Lunch on the flybridge and a tiny toast to the start of the 2022 season.
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