Flying Boat to Land-based Home.

In the past few days, I've watched my boat become a land-based home.  In Deltaville, I had one of the local yards haul it for a couple reasons.  First, there have been a couple through-hulls that need attention and they are notoriously difficult to replace while in the water (you know, that whole water rushing in through a hole in the bottom of the boat thing).  I also planned to head back to Colorado to help my wife with purging our house and the other unnecessary belongings we had acquired as good little American consumers.  Since we needed to haul the boat anyway, might as well store it on the hard while I am gone.

The Travellift raising Rover from the water.

Hovering over land ready to pressure wash.

The haul out and blocking of the boat makes me a bit nervous.  Other than the brief haul-outs for surveys (I feel more experienced at that with 3 surveys under my belt), I've never hauled and blocked a boat for storage on land.  Of course, the owners manual has little useful information on the subject.  I looked through pictures online and made sure that the boat stands were positioned under bulkheads and that load is spread out as much as possible on the stands.

The past couple days I have lived on the boat while it sat out in the boatyard.  This is much less pleasant than sitting at anchor.  In the boatyard the scenery isn't quite as nice (although the Deltaville area is pretty, it just isn't the same as being surrounded by the sea). The worst part is the temperature though.  When we were at anchor, the boat would point into the wind and the airflow would keep the boat fairly cool without the need for air conditioning or fans.  In the yard, the surrounding trees prevent most of the breezes, and the few that do make it to the boat are from random angles that even make the breeze boosters useless.

And, since you are not sitting in the water and the A/C units require raw water to operate, that isn't an option.  Throw in the dust and dirt of the yard, and it just isn't the most comfortable way to live on a boat.  I'm not knocking the yard though, for as far as yards go, this one seems pretty nice.  The folks that work there are friendly and helpful and seem to know what they are doing (guess I'll know for sure after they've completed some work on my boat).  They do have a bathhouse and, although small with only a single shower, it is clean and nicer than some marinas I've stayed at.

It feels a bit weird leaving the boat on land.  It just looks so out of place.  And adding that this is the first time I've hauled and blocked a boat and the first time that I'll be leaving it for any extended period, I guess I'm a little nervous.  I've cleaned up, done laundry, thrown away all open food, defrosted the refrigerator, opened all cabinets so there is some airflow, setup a dehumidifier to help keep it reasonably dry, and the list continues. Hope I've done everything I need to do to keep her clean and safe until our return.

Rover sitting on land...just doesn't look right.

Of course, as I'm writing part of this I'm actually on board a plane heading back to Colorado.  Nothing goes to windward like a 747 (or in my case an A319) and Colorado is roughly windward of Virginia.  Interesting to think I was happy traveling along at 5 knots a few days ago and am now going closer to 500 knots. Of course Rover couldn't make it to Colorado so it really isn't a choice.

We arrive in Denver along with the usual summer evening thunderstorms.  In fact, after we landed we had to sit for about 45 minutes waiting for a gate.  Apparently lightning hit concourse A and knocked out all the communications with the gates.  This resulted in planes not being able to come and go on schedule.  The fun of commercial airline travel...wish I could sail to Colorado.