Karen and I talked about three critical milestones for us to accomplish before we left on our trip. The first was getting Thalia ready for the haul to Portland. The second was getting moved out of the house. And, the third was actually leaving Portland on our boat. We accomplished the first milestone today! Thalia was hauled away from our yard! Today’s work started at 5am with both Karen and I rolling on a fresh coat of bottom paint on the hull. We needed to give it a couple hours to dry before Dayton Marine showed up mid-day for the two hour haul to Portland. They showed up as scheduled, along with an escort car that is required because of Thalia’s beam (width) of 14 feet. The escort car also has a pole mounted on the front of the car that checks for height issues along the way.
It was quite a change to see our yard return back to it’s former image without a boat taking up space. I drove to Portland separately and met up with them at Portland Yacht Services, where I put a second coat of bottom paint on her. I also finished up several jobs on the mast, including the mounting of our single side band radio antenna. This is a new style of antenna, made by GAM electronics in Manchester, NH, that attaches to the backstay and extends 23′ up towards the mast. I also finished fabricating a mount for the combination tricolor/anchor light on the top of the mast, the anemometer, and the VHF antenna. The next morning was official launch day! At 7am Dayton Marine lowered the boat and I down the ramp and into the water, the first time Thalia had seen water for 18 months! Shortly afterward, PYS hoisted the mast and stepped it on the deck. After fiddling with what appeared to be a backstay that was a few inches short, and a forestay that was similarly too long, I concluded that where I had mounted the mast step on the deck was not exactly where it had been last season, causing issues with the stays. PYS ended up fabricating a backstay extension plate and all was back to normal.
Later that afternoon, I motored Thalia across the harbor to our old home at Sunset Marina, where she would reside while we finished up moving out of our house. The newly rebuilt engine ran perfectly for the short trip, the depth sounders were functioning fine and life was good! I returned home to Bedford that day, completely exhausted but happy to have the launch behind us.