Having been lifted from the water on 16 Feb 2009 after our trans Atlantic voyage from Cape Town to fix the long list of problems we had encountered, the day eventually arrived for Oceans Dream to be put back in the water where she truly belongs. The 28 October was scheduled for a pickup in the travelift at 1130 and a launch at 1300 giving us some time to put some antifoul paint on the small patches of the hull where she had been resting.

The day arrived and we felt confident that we had everything ready - all we needed now was some fine weather so that we could get the antifoul on and not be overly challenged leaving the slip which has seen many a scrape when the wind and tide pick up. For us the tide was slack but we could not predict the wind or the rain. Having been successfully placed in the slings of the travel lift we were moved to the slip and then the heavens opened. Like a monsoon it poured for 45 minutes accompanied by strong gusting winds which saw Oceans Dream rocking in the travel lift. This did not bode well.

The storm ended shortly before the travel lift operators came back from their lunch and we were blessed with a lull in the weather. We said our farewells to the many workers who had helped us get ready for this big day as Oceans Dream was gently lowered back into the water and before too long we were motoring out to pick up a buoy in the anchorage.



It was really great to be back on the water and once we had got ourselves securely moored we celebrated with a cup of tea around our new cockpit table as the conversation turned to our cruising plans to take us through the remainder of the year and on into 2010.