Update June 6th, 2022 Preparing to Move on Out!

  We finally made it out of the yard on June 9th.  There was a slight glitch with the haul out when George lifted the Arc just a little bit too high and hit the top of the forward-bow array with the cross bar of the lift.  Ouch!!  It pulled the lag bolts out and tore up the post they were in but Carter was able to fix it after a shopping trip to Lowes, Home Depot and Ace Hardware looking for and finally finding the exact size lag bolt he wanted to use to replace the old ones.  Shew!  We had remained on the sea wall at the boat yard for a week until that was complete.

Also during our stay at the sea wall, we rented a mini-excavator and dug a path into the property and down to the waterfront where Carter steadfastly cleared the canal front and created a nice level landing at the entire cleared area.  About 50' of the 80' frontage.  We bought a woodchipper and began eating away of the massive amount of brush, tree limbs that we have amassed so far during the clearing operation.

This is where I constructed our homemade water barrier.  

Worked out great!

We finally departed the yard and headed straight over to the marina next door to the city dock for a much necessary potty dump.  We kept out business pretty conservative by only using the head at night with all other business being taken up the hill the "5 star facilities" offered at the boat yard.  Yea...YUK.

Then we proceeded on upriver to the entrance to our canal.  We actually attempted to enter the canal but ran aground.  We promptly backed off and dropped anchor beside a couple other sailboats at anchor and got in the whaler to inspect the depth of the entrance.  As luck would have it, we tried to enter on the wrong side of the channel.  We spent the night out in this anchorage and started out the next day...one the correct side of the channel this time.  SUCCESS!  We were able to easily maneuver through the canal, turn around with 5' to spare at the sea wall 2 doors past our lot and slid right into our prepared spot.  

At the mouth of the canal entrance.

We finally found the correct/deep water side to enter the canal.

Pulled right in to our landing and stepped off the boat.

We achieved our goal of getting all of the Arc inside the trees.
Meaning that we are not blocking the canal.

Feeling pretty good about this.
Congratulations Captain!

Our first ramp on/off the boat.

Carter will make our permanent ramp tomorrow. 

Checking out how to position the dock we are going to make out of decking
 that was left on the property.  

This is more like it Captain!  HeHe

Carter and I both took turns mulching up small branches with
our new wood chipper.  It's hard work but I got after it as much as I could.

Making room for the Flair.

Beginning to pile up the branches that are too large to mulch.

Piles of mulch!

Carter got the truck to the back of the property.

The Flair is Home!

A turtle came for a visit.

We arrived at the lot with the Arc on Thursday (2 days ahead of our schedule, but the high tide dictated the timing).  Carter continues work on the tie up spot for the Arc by leveling out the bottom so that it sits level at low tide, as we do come down to land on the twin keels.  No danger of sinking here.

It's time to head north to Florida.  It's just too darned hot to continue at this time.  This is how we left things.

We are VERY satisfied with this property.  The Arc fits, our neighbors are nice, it's a perfect hurricane hole for the boat.  We just don't see many cons at all, seems to be all pros at this present time.

Carter worked very hard in the water digging out a trench for the Arc to sit as level as possible.

It's vey hot here and we can only work during the morning hours and late afternoon when the sun gets behind the trees.  We will work diligently for the next 2 weeks completing the entry road so we can get the Flair back in here.  Then we will head to TN for the summer.  July will be time for elections again.