If at first you don’t succeed …

 

Toss it back in the water and see what happens. Mostly as a joke I had been telling people I was going to splash the boat, motor back a couple of hundred feet into the anchorage, set a hook, and go away for a week. If the boat was still floating when I got back we would drive on. If it wasn’t we would call the insurance company and start over.

Instead (of course) I worried the repair like a demented mother hen, crawling down in the hole over and over for the first hour or so after Kintala landed in the lift pit. The slightest leak would have been glaringly obvious since a fine

I asked Tim for a thumbs up picture. He gave me a so-so signal.

layer of sanding dust coated the whole repair. Nearly ten hours later and the dust is still dust. At some point one must move on so, somewhat reluctantly, the side boards were replaced and the locker filled with much of the stuff that has been cluttering the decks.

In addition to floating,  Kintala sports a mast, rigging and boom once again. Though it is surely a trick of the mind, I’d swear the mast stands straighter and a bit taller what with being stayed by all the shiny new wires and sparking turnbuckles. And this time the mast went up without the slightest hint of drama or damage. I had sworn I was going to hide somewhere and drink while the mast went up. Instead (of course) I was down in the cabin guiding the mast onto the step.

The hammock is back on the foredeck and Tim's a happy camper.

Tomorrow might see sails bent on and more lines run … or it might not. Last time we tried this one night was all we got. If we are still in the slip tomorrow night, then I might start thinking “we made it” once again. I will admit that a good bunch of work was done today, so maybe we will get to ride a rising tide for a while.