Season Three on SOLASTRA

On the 10th of January, Don, our boat broker from San Carlos Yachts, came to our dock to take pictures of Notre Isle. He took a total of 95 pictures! He raved about her and said that she’s the best Rafiki ’37 he’s seen! He was also very surprised in what good shape the teak decks were in (probably because Rick and I totally redid the decks ourselves when she was back in Point Richmond…what a headache that was)! After Don left, we finished getting the boat ready for dry storage, took down the sails and lines and put them down below, along with the dodger, dinghy and everything else that would get damaged in the summer sun, wind and rain! Rick put all the aluminum foil back on the inside of the portholes to keep the sun from damaging the inside of the boat. Notre Isle ready to go. Thursday the 11th, Rick checked the weather, as he has been doing religiously daily, and we discussed our sailing plans with our friends, Margie and Chuck on S/V Dreamcatcher. Together we...

Today is the 7th of January and a lot of things have transpired since I last wrote. Nothing too exciting but we are making headway. First of all, Solastra was launched on the 18th of December as scheduled. Our friend Peter came to help grab lines as we pulled into our slip on A dock. All went smoothly! Rick got started hosing down the outside of the boat and we both started to slowly take out sails, lines, cockpit cushions, surf boards, bicycles, SUP board, Barbecue, etc… that had been stowed down below. I removed the aluminum foil from the windows, wiped down, swept and cleaned the inside of the boat and removed all of the cockroach “hotels” I’d placed all around the boat before we put Solastra away for the summer. Happy to find only one cockroach carcass! After the boat was pretty much cleaned up and both sails, the main and the jib, had been put back where they belong, we started to unpack the car and bring food, clothing and boat parts into the boat. I hung som...