March 15-March 23 - Brunswick Landing Marina, Georgia
No cruising this week, just working to get ready for haul out.
We have spent the last week in Brunswick, Georgia at Brunswick Landing Marina. This marina is one of the most cruiser friendly marinas Sondra and I have visited. From the free laundry, courtesy bicycles, to free beer and wine three nights a week, these guys know how to treat a sailor. Having said this, we haven’t spent much time getting to know our surroundings. We have taken advantage of the free laundry and bikes, but have not participated in any social events.
Last Sunday I rented a car and went to Charlotte to borrow a car from my niece since she is presently out of the country. I drove it down from Charlotte to Brunswick on Monday while I “let” Sondra proceed with the boat preparation without me. The car has been a godsend since we have had to make multiple trips into town for myriad items and without a car it would have been quite difficult and time consuming. It was so nice having a vehicle again just to do small tasks without having to worry about getting an ride-share or getting 10 tasks together before we could efficiently tackle the chore by foot.
So, this week we have getting the boat ready for our haul out this Monday. Some of the tasks include:
Changing the oil for both the diesel engine, and the outboard
Grease and anti-corrosion on a lot of items
Pickling the watermaker
Taking down the mainsail, headsail, and staysail
Cleaning the dinghy and putting it on the deck (and securing it)
Cleaning and storing the cockpit canvas
Repairing anchor roller
Demolding boat
Fill diesel tanks and add biocide
Lubricate all hatches and ports
Polish all of teak inside of Utopia
Recertify and fill propane tanks
Wash cockpit cushions
Wash various cloth items throughout boat
Remove all halyards and lines using mouse lines
That is just the items before hauling the boat out. Once we are on the hard, we have another list of items that will be needed for long term storage. Also, we have a list of maintenance items that if for some reason we run out of items to do next week, we can proceed with doing since we would need to do them prior to splashing in the Fall. Things such as, windlass servicing and repairing our gooseneck pin. Perhaps next week will be a list of items we did after we haul.
So, as of this afternoon (Saturday, March 23) we have two more nights on Utopia. This morning we moved Utopia to the staging dock for the lift on Monday. The boat yard reached out to us on Friday to express concerns about high winds expected on Monday, the day scheduled for our haulout. The haulout dock is located in tight quarters making maneuvering of Utopia rather tricky in high winds. So we took advantage of low winds this morning and are ready for our 8 a.m. haulout. Luckily the staging dock has water and electricity like the other docks, so the only downside is that it is a bit more of a walk to the showers and office. After meeting some guys who are in nearby slips, we are glad we made the move today since they shared stories of people banging up their boats trying to get in and out of the haulout slip.
As usual, see link for this week’s pictures. Note that there is a lot of pictures of the boat we took during the decommissioning tasks, with some Baxter pics peppered in. The main reason for this is to remember how to actually put the boat back together when we get back to the boat in the Fall. If fact we often select a few photos to share each week, but this week, you get all of them. Enjoy!