Spring Break Sailing!

Despite weeks upon weeks of relentless impatience, my spring break finally rolled around and we flew to Nanaimo for a week on Splash, alongside Eric and Cheryl on Ocean Spirit! 

With the 16 hour drive home from the island in January still lurking in our not-so-distant memory, we opted to fly instead of drive. Unfortunately, this meant Lhotse had to stay home but Cinna was lucky enough to fit under the seat and join us for the week.

I know people who have never been on a plane... and here is Cinna, enjoying the Maple Leaf Lounge. Ruff life.

With a 6am departure, we landed in Nanaimo on a sunny Saturday morning. We planned to tackle a few big projects Saturday to Monday and then head out cruising to make the best of our vacation. Well, after meeting Eric and Cheryl to borrow their vehicle (they are seriously the best), chatting with our boat neighbors in the marina, and getting our bags unpacked, we really didn’t get a start on anything until well after 12pm. First on the list was removing Splash’s old name decal. There was one on each side of the hull and they were giant, and after baking in the sun for thirty years, removing them was no easy feat. Even with the help of power tools, it took Brad a lot of muscle and time to get one decal off at Christmas and another chunk of muscle and time to remove the second decal on Saturday. So while Brad slaved away at the decal, I started to tackle some hull polishing. Being of the personality type that finds immense satisfaction in cleaning, I thought this would be a great job for me. Boy was I misled! Using the buffer tool thing, it took me zero minutes to realize that polishing was going to be a hell of a lot more work than I bargained for.  Hearing the grind of the decal remover working away on the other side of the boat, I was fuelled by guilt to suck it up and get buffing. It was painstakingly slow and an embarrassing acrobatic performance to balance on the dock in an attempt to reach every inch of the hull without falling into the water. After a few hours, I managed to finish buffing with a deoxidizing agent and the only thing that kept me going was the passerby who commented on what a difference it was making. I think they were just seeing the defeat on my face. Ha. Needless to say, I just about cried when Brad told me I’d need to do it twice more with polish and wax before the job was complete. Not to mention that our boat has two sides. Ugh. 

Sunday rolled around faster than ever and thank goodness for Mother Nature who brought weather that was unconducive for any more hull polishing. Yipee! Brad dove head first into the engine room (literally) to begin the realignment, and the glutton for punishment that I am, chose to refocus my polishing efforts on the cockpit. By 6pm our engine was realigned and fuel filters were cleaned, and the cockpit was cleaned and re-waxed. During this time, our forward toilet managed to repair itself (the real MVP) and we gave the decks a good wash down in preparation for leaving the dock on Monday. We told ourselves we would chip away at the remaining 3,451 tasks while on anchor that week (LOL…) because it was time for a glass of wine and dinner with Eric and Cheryl at their new place, followed by the best part -- a well deserved hot tub! 

It is really starting to look like spring at the marina!