August 19, 2020
Scupper 263
Wednesday
Early in the week before the scheduled and planned departure of Sea Breeze from the shop, the shipper contacted me to ask if the boat was ready (yes indeed) and if it would be OK to pick her up on Thursday, rather than the following Monday. That was certainly OK with me, but the next day he called again and wanted to move it up to Wednesday, which was also fine by me.
So on the appointed date and time, the first stage of the transport began at the shop with the arrival of the hydraulic trailer that would bring the boat to a nearby (as nearby as anything here) yard, where they’d transfer the boat to a lowboy trailer for the long trip to Florida.
Loading the boat was without drama or issue, and before long she was outdoors for the first time since March 16, 2018, which was the true beginning of the project despite a week or so of work that I’d done the previous fall. With several breaks in the action between then and the actual completion of the project in March 2020, the boat had regardless been in the shop throughout, and had become a familiar fixture therein. It was nice to see her back out in full view and daylight once more. I took a video of her emerging from the shop, but alas, something went wrong (user error) and the only usable footage was 4 seconds at the end with the camera pointing at the ground. (I come from the pre-video era, folks.)
Once outdoors, we loaded the mast on the outriggers on the trailer, and the driver strapped down the boat and made other final preparations.
The truck departed around 1245. From here, once past my traditional (now with barely an opening in the brush) final departure photo angle at the end of the driveway, the boat was beyond my purview, but I looked forward to hearing of her successful arrival in Florida, and her successful commissioning shortly thereafter.
