Well the day has finally arrived! Today is the day that we splashed in the water. The engine was finally running and everything looks good. We decided to leave Free Spirit in the water for an extra week rather than trying to take of tomorrow. We needed to ensure there were no leaks or water seeping in. Luckily, while a stressful day, all went as planned. There is nothing more stressful or scary than to watch your beloved vessel being hoisted and carried away and praying that she doesn't fall out of the slings and onto the ground. They added an extra rope on the bottom in order to keep her stable during the move from the hard ground to water. She sat in the sling for about 2 hours before we moved her 250ft to her temp slip for the week. We will have finishing work to complete before she sails home next week.
Finishing work to be done: connect and stabilize the bilge pumps, add cockpit lining to seating, remove trash from the interior and prepare her for sailing, connect all Victron electronics, add the new battery switch and get the engine some run time before we sail. So once again we will be at the boat each night after work to complete everything.
In the meantime, Andy will start to figure out if we are going to motor the ICW or go offshore and motor. We are unsure that the sails will be on before we leave. So we may not have the option other than to motor.
