We Have Arrived!

This morning, I met the boat in Marathon, FL. It didn't take long for the Marina owner to greet us (me, the boat, and Andy the truck driver). The owner got us situated and before long the yard was taking the mast and roller furler off the truck. Then a small fork lift came to lift the tender off the truck for us.

That was the opening act. The main event followed shortly after and Distant Horizon was once again in the water.

The riggers and I worked on preparing everything. A crane was scheduled to arrive after lunch. The crane was needed to step my mast. That is, put it in the boat standing upright.

The riggers worked hard in the South Florida heat getting the mast "in column". This means getting iit standing up straight so the top of the mast is properly aligned with the bottom of the mast. They continued until sunset tuning the rig. That means, the tightened everything down to the proper tension; ensuring the mast did not bend inappropriately.

As the worked, they checked on the concerns I had with the work done by the rigging company in Annapolis. They agreed that the previous tune was way off.

Since I single-hand the boat (sail it without any other crew), they also showed me how to do that efficiently He said he has singled-handed a 1200 mile journey once. In his 20+ years of sailing it was by far the hardest thing he has ever done. So, we talked about that and my future crossing of the Atlantic single-handed.

Tomorrow, I'll be doing a lot of work preparing the boat for Grace's trip to the Dry Tortugas.
.