On August 24, Seabbatical was moved overland from the PDQ factory to Port Whitby Marina in Whitby, Ontario. (Whitby is on the north shore of Lake Ontario about a 45 minute drive east of Toronto.) Once Seabbatical was in the water, the commissioning crew set to work rigging, testing systems and cleaning.
We drove a rented truck full of boat equipment from Des Moines to Whitby and went aboard Seabbatical for the first time on September 20th. We moved our gear aboard a few days later. It seems like we spent the next two weeks making daily visits to the nearby marine supply store as we installed the gear we had brought to Whitby.
We made a couple of shakedown cruises on Lake Ontario, and then, after all systems were operational, it was time to unstep (take down) the mast. Our course will take us down the Erie Canal and Hudson River to the North Atlantic Ocean. The mast has to be down on deck so we will fit under the bridges along the way. By Friday, October 5th, the mast was down and secured by a cobweb of lines to the deck and all of our errands were completed. It was time to say good-bye to our new friends at the dock and head out across the lake.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for sharing this part of you life. It is so sad when friends leave Des Moines for good, so it is nice to keep in touch this way even if you are not gone for good!
Amazing that the keel doesn't need to be longer.
Bon Voyage! CMP
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