As the leaves begin to fall and the temps continue to drop, it is just…
December Update – Back On Board!
When we returned from The Bahamas at the beginning of June we decided that rather than bring OLOH north for the season only to turn around in a couple of months and make our way south again, it would work best for our grand plans to leave OLOH in Fort Lauderdale for the summer. We found a terrific place to tie her up in a “hurricane hole” (relatively protected in the event of a storm) that is just a short drive from our dear friend Captain Andre who was kind enough to keep an eye on her in our absence. Our plan had always been to return right after Thanksgiving weekend, allowing us to host our traditional, big family gathering at our home which was, as always, a warm and wonderful time. At the tail end of the weekend we cleaned up, packed up and loaded every last square inch of our rental SUV for the 1,380 mile drive back to OLOH. Aside from the torrential rain that plagued quite a bit of day one, the drive went smoothly and by late Tuesday afternoon we were back on board!
[videopress DzWxiKxy]While we knew OLOH was is great hands with Andre, you really never know how it’s all going to work out when you leave your boat. But as devastating as the storm season was elsewhere, it was kind to us and having Andre looking out along with regular washings and a monthly diver to check on things below the waterline, everything went well and it was nice to return and see that OLOH made it through her summer slumber in fine shape.
There was no rest for the weary as we hit the ground running and had service people on board first thing the morning after our arrival and continuing to show up throughout the week as we knocked down our pre-haulout punchlist. We’ll be getting into the specifics of a lot of this work in our projects section, but here’s a sampling of what was going on…
Just like getting service people for your home, in boating, it can be a crapshoot – you don’t always know what you’re going to get. We are pleased to report that each of the vendors we have used while getting OLOH ready to cruise – largely people and organizations new to us – have been terrific and worthy of our recommendation (see the clickable links above).
And while it was mostly work, work, work, we did enjoy a few moments of downtime…
We met with the yard on Friday to confirm our planned work and 8am Monday haulout. While we ran through all of OLOH’s systems and checked out everything as best as we could, we were keenly aware that she hadn’t moved in six months so there was certainly some anxiety in running the boat over to the yard, despite the fact that it was only around 1/2 mile away from her summer slip. But we are pleased to report that everything worked as it should have and the yard’s crew was there to receive us right on schedule as we pulled right into their travel-lift pit.
The haulout itself is always a bit stressful but you take comfort in knowing that they do this every day and with much bigger boats. This crew is top-notch and fortunately, seeing OLOH’s bottom for the first time since our pre-purchase survey revealed nothing unexpected.
It’s a busy week at the yard with fresh bottom paint being applied, the installation of our new stabilizer fins and a handful of other maintenance and upgrade items. But we expect to be wet again after a week or so and look forward to pointing OLOH’s bow south to continue our adventure. Thanks for following along!
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And that concludes your OLOH instructions. M/Y OLOH back to 1-6.
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