It’s so good to be back in Florida and more importantly, to be back at the boat!! We left Canada at 11:50am on Oct. 29th, drove straight to Florida and arrived on Oct. 30 at 8:30am. It was a good drive – light traffic and good weather. Our only slow down was crossing the border at Thousand Island Bridge. They were actually stopping traffic before the first toll because the US border control was backed-up. It took about an hour to get into the USA. I guess everyone thought Oct. 29 was a good driving day!!
We went directly to the boat and at first glance we could see that Hurricane Ian had done a little bit of damage to our tarp coverings. We had a big gray tarp over the cockpit area and it was hanging down the side almost totally detached. When that tarp blew off, it did some damage – it broke the radio antenna for our Sirius satellite radio (which was in the cockpit) and it dislodged our boarding ladder and the fishing hook – neither of these caused any damage. Although the exterior looked a bit messed up, the interior was in great shape!! We had no water inside and there was very little mold (just in the usual spots). Clean up inside will be very easy and will not require any extra work (I’m super happy about that)!
So you arrive at your destination early in the morning after driving 20 hours – what would you do?? Relax or work?? Work of course 😁! First job was to get the dangling tarp off and remove the green shade cover. After removing those items, we saw that the deck was dirty but not too bad and that the cockpit also needed a good cleaning. I started with the cockpit and Mark went to work on the davit (the support at the stern that holds our dinghy). At the end of last season we had a survey of the boat done for insurance purposes. A survey is just like a home inspection and our survey highlighted 3 things that needed to be fixed before we go back on the water: 1. Fix the crack in the stainless steal davit on the port side. 2. Fix the through-hull handles on the sea chest. And 3. Clean the bilge a bit more. We will get all 3 items done this week before we get splashed!!
We started our second day slightly late – we definitely needed a sleep in after the long drive! Our jobs today included more cleaning plus one of the survey “must do” items. Mark spent the morning getting all the welding jobs ready. The davit crack needs to be welded so we’ve hired a welder to do that job and while he’s on the boat, Mark has planned an additional job – to make a gate in the stern rail so it will be easier for Mark to get on the boat from the dinghy. Mark spent the morning cutting the stainless steel rails to make the gate. I spent the morning moving all the enclosure pieces into the cockpit and sorting inside the boat.
After lunch we both had new jobs. Mark used our boat neighbour‘s hose to wash the deck (a much needed thing!!)? I started my big job for this month – refinishing wood!! After 12 years of ownership, Crimson Kathryn is showing a bit of her age when it comes to the wood on the boat. I’ve spent the past few years working on the exterior wood and now it’s time to concentrate on the interior wood and the other wood surfaces in the cockpit. Today I started with sanding the aft cabin companionway hatch board. At the end of the day, I put the enclosure up and moved most of the cockpit cushions from inside the boat into the cockpit!!
We had a very productive day and are ready for day 3 tomorrow. The welder (who checked out the job today around 3pm) will arrive at 9am to do that job and we’ll continue to work away at the prelaunch jobs!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 