Moving Day - Part 3

Brands' Marina, our final destination, is one of the largest, best equipped marinas in the Port Clinton area. They have over a hundred slips, from 25 to 40 foot and more, both indoor and outdoor storage, cold and heated, workshops, locker room facilities and a ship's store for parts and accessories.

This will be "Second Wind's" home for the next year while I put the finishing touches on her, coat the bottom with barrier and anti-fouling paint, and rig her for sailing in the Spring.

For now, she will be moved into an unheated, indoor workshop for the Winter. I can live aboard in the marina while I work and use the locker room facilities, ship's store, and tap the expertise of their boatbuilders. With only about 200 more hours of work to do, I can work at my own pace, stopping work when the really cold weather sets in. Brands' is mostly a sailing marina, and the owners, Darryl and Connie Brand, are fellow Westsail 32 owners - a key factor in my choice of a marina.

We parked the boat temporarily outside the shop until they can get the space cleared. By the end of the month she should be indoors. The move went very well, no scuffs, scratches, or breakage. As far as I could find, the only change was that one of the locker doors came open (it was empty). Jerry, of Nautic Marine, did an excellent job of rigging and moving the boat and I highly recommend them. Not only was he careful, but he was the most reasonably priced of the professional transporter firms.

Stay tuned to the blog for further entries later this Fall and Spring. We expect to relaunch the boat by the end of April 2011.