We are floating...my version of our launch.
My first taste of living aboard a yacht full time was in a dusty, hot, mosquito infested yard – only onwards and upwards from that situation!!
We had been waiting for our triducer to be shipped from America and paid priority shipping with fedex to get it to Grenada quicker. Unfortunately the parts we wanted were not in stock so we waited a week for them to get to the warehouse and then the fabulous fedex service got it from Las Vegas to Grenada in 36 hours!! Now THAT is first rate service. With the transducer now plugging the hole in our thruhull, we were good to launch. With this being Friday, we booked to launch on the Monday figuring all the wiring of the depth and wind instruments could be done on the water.
Monday morning we rose early and went on a hunt for outboard parts. We had yet to get our motor working and it required at least a new impeller and gasket. We were feeling rather anxious at this point thinking that we may have to result in rowing the large dinghy ashore considering the likelihood of this auto-parts firm stocking our Mercury specific items being very slim. Luckily, Prestige motors came up with the goods and with a little help from Desmond in the yard, we had her purring again and ready to go.
Fenders out, dock lines tied on the bow and stern we awaited for the travel lift to come and get us. We took this opportunity to run through our anchoring process, hand signals we would use to each other and who would do what role. As I was newer to this than Dylan, we decided that I would be on the anchor (we have an electric windlass) and Dylan on the helm. I practiced a good few times on the hard to build my confidence in locking and unlocking the windlass.
Tipping the yard boys, we managed to buy some time to drop the centreboard and give it a slick of antifoul whilst the boat was in the slings. Our hearts were in our mouths as the lift took the weight of our boat that represents all of our life's earnings and all our worldly possessions. Sure these guys do this activity every single day but it doesn't stop you from worrying and grimacing as the machine creaks and groans under the boat's weight.
Paint applied, we raised the centreboard and lowered her into the water. Myles, a guy we met at drinks nights earlier, agreed to come and help us anchor on our first time. We piled on board and slipped the dock lines whilst the engine started first time. We were finally motoring with no leaks and no hiccups so far!
Wind in our hair we navigated away from the shore and through the channel markers, I was on lookout for any oncoming traffic whilst Dylan headed for a possible anchoring spot – beaming smiles on our faces.
Puttering through the anchored boats we waved at familiar faces and were cheered on by fellow cruisers that had heard our story and were genuinely happy to see us finally out on the water.
Having eyed up a nice big space in the boats to attempt our first anchoring, Dylan put her into neutral whilst I lowered the chain and counted the markers (white paint every 20 ft). On our second attempt we were happy with our position relative to other yachts and cracked open the beers to observe the bite of the anchor.
Next step was to haul the dinghy over the side and put on the outboard. It worked first time – woop! Myles, Dylan and I piled into the dinghy and headed to shore, planing along in our big dinghy with a 10HP engine. No splashes, no wet shorts, no grumbles from me. Finding a tin flag of Grenada we hoisted up the flag and breathed a sigh of contentment.
This evening we have enjoyed our spacious cockpit with no mozzies in sight, watching the sunset under a full moon. An activity we couldn't have done in the yard for fear of being eaten alive. As I write this it is close to bedtime (8pm!) and we are gently being rocked to sleep by the swell....heaven.
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