Well it's finally arrived.... This is the day the good ship Shannon gets lifted from her natural (wet) element and placed, carefully, on a bevy of stands with chains and metal plates, in a Mexican boatyard here in La Paz. We've been slaving in 30 degree temps to prepare her... and it's not been the most fun thing we've every done :-) But, suffice to say the deck plastic and nylon hardware has been covered, the lines have been soaked and washed, the sails have been rinsed and packed up, the lockers have been cleared of all food and pressurized cans... anything that might not do too well in 100 degree temps. The halyards have been replaced with messenger lines and washed and packed and the lifeline netting and spray cloths have also been removed, cleaned and packed away. Not sure if we'll find any of this stuff in October...it's all packed away into various nooks and crannies and lockers, but at least it's been dealt with for now. The decks have been scrubbed (for what it's worth as we're told the winds and dust will have coated her by the time we return).
We get lifted out at 1100 hrs., on a huge hydraulic trailor. Once she's settled onto her stands, Shannon will get a good pressure wash after which we'll lube all the thru-hulls and begin the final packing up. We'll finish up tomorrow with the final act of covering her with UV protected shade cloth and then we leave to start our drive home on Wednesday morning.
As I finish the post we'll be disconnecting the boat and 'off line' for a few days. We're stopping for a couple of days here and there as we travel up the Baja and I'm not sure how much 'connectivity' we'll have at each stop. We'll write as/if we can so just remember "no news is good news" if you don't hear from us for a few days.
Hope everyone is well and taking good care of each other. Spring is sprung... so glad to hear folks are planting spring flowers... can't wait to see them.
Bye bye for now... ttfn... CJ & Kathy and Princess Sophie.
