Ciara’s splash day
Captain took me away for my birthday. We had a lovely trip out west. Completely teased me as I have never been to those places. I’m glad I got to drive them at the very least!
This past winter has been long, and honestly directionless for a good portion of it. I never managed to keep the momentum of writing and reading when I got home and fell more into day-to-day life and way too much doom scrolling. When February came around, we both found our motivation. We had gotten quite a few large chores done before then, but we went full steam at that point. Those three months were so full and fulfilling. We had scheduled Ciara to go in the Friday we got back from out west. This would have given us exactly one day to turn around and head north. I had piles ready, it would have been crazy and thankfully the weather didn’t cooperate, so we re-scheduled for this week. That let us breathe just a little and get a few more unexpected projects done. Captain pulled out some fine skills and finally made a holder for all of the spars we bring home every winter to varnish. Cory made a few loads of Freeze Dried Apples. I fixed some our Vinyl registration numbers on our dinghy. Cory had a low work load at school and asked to come along so we excused them for the long weekend and headed north late on Wednesday evening. We got to enjoy a little hot tub time at the hotel before we went to bed, only to get up nice and early for splash in day.
Captain had us up at 6am so we could be at the ship yard by 7am. We were told we’d be first in, but as we stopped by the office with donuts in hand, they had a few little things in front of us. No worries. We did the few things we needed to do to get Ciara ready for the launch and waited. Cory and I went to get some Starbucks as I really like their breakfast sandwich and Kona got her first pup up of the season. Kona enjoyed being around the marina again and saying hi to everyone. We walked the docks and noticed quite a few boats in already. I don’t think many will be leaving the marina’s often this summer. We chatted with one power boater and he said it would cost him over $500 in fuel just to go to our normal anchorages not far away. Yay, sailing! Finally, around 10am they were ready for us.
I really like the new boat yard. We have ever only been at the other place and they used a travel lift. Most places use a travel lift. This boat yard has this really unique trailer that can accommodate sailboats. It has large air bags and they just remove the stands as he backs in. Once the boat is “free” of its stands it can sense the weight and automatically fills or deflates the bags to keep the boat upright. Totally cool! The operator has a remote and just walks with the boat as we did down to the boat ramp. This cool trailer then uses hydraulics to keep the boat level as it descends down the ramp.
We spent about two hours moving things aboard and organizing things and all the chores before the mast was stepped. No video as I needed to help. I got a few photos though. We have been nervous about the mast stepping, but we got her out, so we were pretty sure we would get her in. The new marina doesn’t have quite as nice of a mast crane and our mast is at the max it can handle. The crew was very patient and thoughtful as we planned the stepping and it went very well.
With Ciara all rigged we spent the afternoon doing more of the same…unpacking, doing projects and socializing! Our friends Bruce and Scott stopped by multiple times during the day as well as others who driving to the yacht club next door. (Where we hope to get married, btw!). By 6pm I was starving and been working for a big bowl of guacamole all day. We took Scott to dinner at Old Mexico with us to thank him for his help. Love that place in Sturgeon Bay.
After dinner we returned back to Ciara for a nightcap. Scott stayed to have some of Captain’s rum and our friend Adam stopped by as well for a bit.
I played taps at 9, marking the beginning of the nightly observance.
I finally called it around 11pm. I have to do a ton of driving tomorrow. I have to drive home and get my kiddos and bring them back up. Captain, Cory and Scott are going to sail to Egg Harbor and we will meet them there pretty late. The crew, minus me (booooo, tears) will be sailing to Nicolet Bay on Saturday and then cross over to our Marina in Michigan on Sunday. The weather is great for it. I get to move the car ☹ I think I may have to leave well before them if they want me to catch lines in MI as the sail is significantly less then my drive all the way back down to Breen Bay and back up the other side. Since both Cory and Bert are in marching band, we will return Sunday so they can march in our community parade.
Ciara launched very well. We are hopeful for another amazing and safe season. She has become so incredibly dear to us.
Note:
I have decided to push some goals this summer and one of those is more videos and pictures as requested by more than a few of my readers. I have a long way to go on learning how to use tiktok (as well as Instagram and YouTube), but I did make a video and a slide show (I think?) on tiktok of the launch and our day. It’s cool, even if the music is messed up and you should go check it out. (I’ll try and redo it because it is kind of crappy). You can check out those social links with the icons at the bottom of the page. I’m using this because my webpage barely supports video. Thank you :D
