Farewell, My Lovely

We did a million and one last-minute things. We went in to find a room for the night and hit upon some great little apartments that are rented out to university students. This being after school had ended for the year, there were rooms available...and laundry! We booked a room and arranged for a drive to the airport early the next day.

Then we waited for 2 p.m. We knew the boat that was being hauled out ahead of us and saw her moving down the channel right on schedule. Then we dropped our mooring and took her carefully down to the lift dock. The rest is as follows:

Waiting for the lift to arrive

Lift off!

One of Django's bellies and props

Off to her summer berth

WW spent a great deal of time with the boatyard worthy who would take charge of the many repairs Django required. Sails would go to the sail loft. Paint would be applied. A variety of problems, small and not-so-small, would be dealt with. The chap wrote a long list. (In the event, it wasn't much use. WW called in August and learned the list had been lost.)

While all this went on, Django was installed in her ashore berth, propped on special boat-proppers and strapped firmly to the ground. The boatyard had suffered badly during Ivan, with monohulls toppling over and smashing multihulls. Apparently it looked like a bad game of pickup sticks after Ivan was done. They now take no chances and all boats are strapped down hard.

We removed her bimini and anything else loose on deck. Down came her Canadian flag. We prepared here as well as we could for five or so months without us. Then we said goodbye and wished her well.