Summer on the hard

Hurricane season–officially from June 1 to November– but for us a time to have the boat hauled out of the water to have some maintenance performed.

First we sailed from Brunswick, Georgia to Thunderbolt Marine in Savannah, Georgia. As we were leaving Brunswick, Benjamin got some pictures of us under sail with his drone. We are ordering a new main and jib and the sailmaker requested a picture of us under sail, which isn’t that easy to do. Benjamin can’t fly his drone from the boat when we are moving because if it loses connection with its controller it is programmed to land at its known GPS takeoff location. Fortunately our good friends from S/V Eos were able to drive Benjamin to shore just beside the bridge and he flew his drone from there to get these shots, and then we returned to shore to pick him back up and carry on.

At Thunderbolt Marine we got new bottom paint which helps repel all the stuff that wants to grow on the bottom of the boat and turn us into a floating reef. You know the growth is bad when you can hear the fish scraping their teeth on the bottom of your boat. We also serviced the sail drives (the part where the inboard engines goes down through the bottom of the hull to the propellor). I have no idea why they are called sail drives, they have nothing to do with the sail and have everything to do with the engine. But apparently they have to get sealed and greased and that sort of thing every once in a while.

While our boat was “on the hard” we had a fun summer visiting family and friends. I worked every other week to replenish the sailing kitty, and pay for all this boat work being done. It was a time of great fun and adventure. Benjamin went to Panama for two weeks as a teen volunteer and stayed with a host family. The kids and Kim all spent a week participating in a church education program. And we got to spend a good amount of time in North Carolina.

We also spent a few days visiting family in Knoxville, Tennessee

We even got to spend time on the water, a different sort than what we are used to on Wonderstruck.

While in Savannah we visited some favorite haunts, including a trip to Tybee Island for dinner.

Both kids had birthdays. Benjamin turned 16 and got his driver’s license.

Aislin turned 14 and got to spend some time with her friends.

Overall it was a fun summer/ hurricane season for all and now Wonderstruck is ready for her next adventure.