We Moved!

 

Alas, the time of year has come that our Island accommodations are no longer accommodating. By now, most of, if not all, of the neighboring boats have been hauled out. Most of their inhabitants have relocated to City dwellings and docks or tropical destinations for the winter. The Marina is cold,
empty, and lonely. The Island Park is too, quite deserted. With the cold dark days of autumn upon us it's all just a tad bit too isolating. So over the first weekend of November we relocated Monster to our winter accommodations, dockside in the City!

Prior to settling into our new slip, we detoured through the harbour to the Toronto Drydock where we pulled the mast. After removing the radar dome, casting off the lines and halyards, we removed clevis pins from all the stays, and the mast, via a crane, was hauled up and away! We had some fantastic help from some friends: Jeremy, Pedro, Clint, Brad & Pablo... Thank you so much! These guys braved the first flurries of the season, and everything ran smoothly and quickly. Monster looks rather odd without her rigging, but this will enable us to do some much needed work. We are planning on replacing the spreader lights, re-wiring the whole lot, re-rigging the radar, replacing the wind vane, and most excitingly taking measurements to get started on a new boom and gaff!  We are happily restoring Monster to gaff rig! 

Now the work begins to wrap up the boat for the season. This year we will shrink wrap the boat, and this will be a much simpler process without the mast and rigging to work around. We are going  to build ourselves a gangway to board the boat on and off the stern. Like last year, we are going to block up all our overhead sky ports with thick white styrofoam, and each of our 16 ports will be insulated. The Hot Start pump will be engaged on the engine once again keeping the engine room toasty. And so, our winterizing list goes on... Most importantly we are certainly going to do our best to keep the condensation at bay this year for a happy & healthy boat! 

~~ This post 'We Moved!' first appeared on goodshipmonster.blogspot.ca~~