Today is April 22, 2010 and starts out as usual with the wake up. Rich on Third Day is going to town so I decided to go, since we will be leaving in a couple of days, I had better get the provisioning done. Amy and Jay, Rich's kids went along and helped carry all the stuff back. We got back to the boat which is still on the hard and Russ informed me that we will be pressure washing the boat topside in about an hour. So I relaxed with a cup of Ice tea and the computer. He meanwhile went over to the marina office to talk to Raul about putting us back in the water today. So we pressure washed the decks from about 1:00 to 4:10 pm and still did not get the aft cockpit. The main cockpit is the only place that soap was used. There is a reason for this, and that is, in the yard agreement they would provide personnel to clean the topside.

Then it happened. Then at 4:10 the water was turned off and then the ladder was removed while I was clipping Russ's toenails. We then heard the roar of the travel lift engines, signifying that realty was about to happen. Yes, the travel lift effortlessly rolled across the cement yard and straddled us indicating that an actual launch was about to happen, putting an end to my now so familiar and favorite night time porta pottie the Denny B's Bait Bucket.

The travel lift is in position, the slings attached. Raul raised us so gently and cautiously until the stands could be removed. With the stands clear and we in our lofty walmart beach chairs, rolled effortless across to the drop zone under a professional, caring eye of Raul and the San Blas Staff. Splash down was precisely 5:22 pm was high tide.

Huston we have a problem. No water flow out the exhaust. Russ checked the engine for fifteen minutes to no avail. When one of the San Blas Marina staff mentioned that the sling may be covering up the engine water intake. The rear dock lines were tossed a shore and the rear sling was lowered. Wala! Houston, our problem is cured. We now have water to the engine. Sixty seconds later we were in orbit, working our way to a dock landing. Four inches under the keel was observed on the way to the dock. With the lines secured to the dock, I had mentioned to Cheryl on Lazy Days that we need to have margaritas; she said "I have margaritas" and proceeded to walk to her boat. We continued to get settled in and when I walked to the next dock to look at our boat she said "now you are not even close to your boat or to the bar". So, I took that as an innovation to have a drink at the bar which was their boat. Lori from Third Day asked me about having a taco dock party and I agreed and volunteered Russ to make Guacamole and gave her what tortillas and taco seasoning I had and off she went. The dock party ended up on Ron and Cheryl's boat Lazy Days which is a beautiful 48 foot DeFever. This boat is gorgeous. We all had a great time. It turns out that we all will be leaving San Blas on the same day and all will be headed out to Isabella.



View the launch photos Click on PHOTO GALLERY to the right.