SPLASH.......

FINALLY ARITA IS BACK IN HER ELEMENT. Amazing how easily you pick up a yacht turn it and move it over the water and just drop it in. It used to be a case of divers putting solid wood blocks on a railwaycar all under water, and the yacht slowly coming out of the water on a sloping railway. Shivering, shaking and rocking as it came up. In those days one's heart would make the same vibrations until the yacht came to a stop at the end of the track. Double click on the pics to get better detail.



Time to start loading stuff on board by first taking stuff off. One of the benefits of all this is that many of the boat items are equally useful on SVEA so that it too will be more fully equiped for extended cruising as a result of all the acquired gear for ARITA. Over the years we have ended up with spares of everything. We even have spares for spares. Time to get real or get a U-HAUL barge.




There was frost on the windscreen this morning..... it is definitely time to get moving and head south, I mean south beyond FLORIDA. Somewhere where the hibiscus blooms all year long and where in "winter" you need the shade of a palm tree. Somewhere south where you can walk in bare feet with sand on your toes and the smell of salt in the air.