Thursday 2 September - Launch day - Just!

This was planned as launch day. We knew that things would not start happening too early, and we prepared ourselves for a lot of hanging around waiting for things to happen. This proved entirely accurate.

We had been told that the launch would be at about 10:00, so we cycled over to the marina and did the last preparations to the boat, fenders out ready for deployment and etc. The boatyard surprised us by saying that there were packages that had been delivered for us, things that we had entirely forgotten about in the 22 months we have been away. There was the electrical innards of one of the winches that we had returned to the manufacturer for a refurbishment and a new piece to connect the vang to the mast. Getting the winch components up the ladder was not an easy task, as they were heavy and unbalanced. Ultimately however we were ready.

Then the boatyard said the launch would be in the afternoon, so we went away to buy food and have lunch returning at about 3:00. We were ready, the guys for the yard were ready…. But, there were two cars in the way preventing the hoist from being able to take the boat to the launching doc. No one knew whose cars they were, so we waited, and waited, and waited. The conclusion was that the cars belonged to a boat owner's guests, and they had gone out for the day. We speculated that they could use the forklift to just move them, but this was not considered a realistic solution. 

The gap that was not big enough, until it was.

At about 5:30 we were asking what the latest time for them to start the lift process would be, they said about 7:30. At about 6:00 we said that we would go away and eat, and they could call us back if anything happened. We returned to the apartment, carried the folding bikes up the four stories to the apartment and prepared our meal. Inevitably, after 2 mouthfuls, the phone rang and they said that they were moving our boat. I rushed back to the marina, in time to see Equinox suspended over the launching bay, but still out of the water. Once I was there, they lowered her in very gently. I noticed that the two errant cars were still where they had been, so maybe our pressure in saying what a big problem it would be if she was not launched today had paid off. They must have inched past the two cars, and probably did not want either us or the cars owners to see how small the clearances were.




Equinox sat in the launching bay overnight, still partially supported by the crane’s lifting strops. I assume that they did not want to leave us to sink if there had been some sort of unexpected leakage. I returned to the apartment and finished dinner, still surprisingly edible.

Steve & Tricia

Bosa, Sardinia

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