Well the day has finally arrived and we’re pretty nearly ready. Got a bunch of stuff to do but confident it will happen.

I check in early with SIMS and they say we are on schedule for launch at 3 PM. This, of course, is a lie but what can you do.

I manage to reach Al who says both starters were burnt up but he rebuilt one and Fonda has it at the Nissan dealer. I’ll go and get it a bit later in the morning. EC$400 which is about EC$200 less than a new one. Worth it? Maybe.

Christy does the final paint job on the blank spots and between the two of us we finish cleaning the boat, it was pretty dirty and scummy above the water line. Looks good now. I put a couple more coats of spray paint on the prop.

We finally put the letters “Toronto” on the back of the boat. Needed to be out of the water for that job and it looks pretty good.

We spend most of the day cleaning up the mess we made in and around the boat and checking out of our cool Cool Runnings apartment which takes a couple trips and we need to be out by 10 am. We’re a couple minutes late but only a couple.

The riggers come by and remind us the inner shrouds are not in great shape. I eventually go and meet Tarrah at thier office onsite and we’ll probably get the work done as they have the parts. But it’s gotta be done Monday or Tuesday. We have to be off our mooring Tuesday morning so Monday is preferable. Might have to come onto the dock here, Secret Harbour or Clarkes.

3 PM approaches and the lift is nowhere near ready to take us. Shocker. We start getting a little antsy around 4:30 PM as these guys quit working at 5:00 and we’re not crazy about going out in the dark. I go and see the lift operators and they say we’re next, we’re going in.

I go and bail out the dinghy as it has been raining quite hard at night the last couple of days – it was 6 inches deep in there. The last time I tried to drain it by plaining it wouldn’t really drain so I did it manually. I drive the dinghy over by the lift area so it is ready to go when we launch. The plan is Christy will drive the boat out, I will follow in the dinghy. I’ll zip ahead and find the mooring ball then return to the boat and jump on board. It’ll be dusky by that time and we don’t want to drive Milu around looking for a mooring ball.

Finally, they come and move us on to the small lift and pull Milu out into the launch runway. This is very good since, as I hoped, by doing this they can put Milu in nose first and Christy won’t have to back out.

We splash just after 5 pm, a bit late but all goes well. Milu starts up fine and doesn’t burst into smoke and flames, doesn’t sink. So far so good.

I jump in the dinghy as Christy pulls out and zip over to the mooring area where I think #7 is, find it no problem and go back to jump on the moving Milu.

Always crowded in Prickly and a bit tricky to catch it, especially since I’ve forgotten how to use our handy-dandy Hook ‘n’ Moor tool. The neighbouring Frenchman in his skimpy speedo comes over to help us and we thank him in Frenglish. He is pretty morose but his wife seems friendly on the cat next door.

We’re moored. Big wave of relief.

We’re supposed to go into One Love to celebrate Kaye’s birthday and Christy has to drag me up and out cuz though I’m dying of starvation I’m also pretty beat. But off we go. It’s very busy (when I was going out in the dinghy at launch time there was dinghy after dinghy coming in) but we find a table with Paul and Janet, two Canadians we met earlier. No sign of Kaye and Lane so we assume we’ve missed them. It’s after 7 pm now.

Mike and Nancy join us, they are very nice couples both of them. I really enjoy chatting with Paul who is sitting beside me. We order 2 pizzas (we normally split one) and I devour mine in minutes and then about 1/3 of Christy’s. Kaye comes in, they were actually out back. Our new friends are walking up to the container park and I’m hoping Kaye and Lane don’t hang around too long as I’m ready to pack it in.

Everybody leaves, so do we and finally board Milu for the night. I’m too tired to bring Son of Milu up on the davits so just lock him up on the back of the boat.