Ruyam II Is On Land

We saw our baby’s bottom for the first time at 10:00 am on Friday. Thank God Culebra’s reefs did not harm her, save a few scratches!

On Thursday, Raquel told us to wait for instructions through VHF for the next morning, around 9:00 am. We were ready before then, so when she called we leaped into action. We reared into the travel lift, surrendered the four dock lines and left the boat. When Ruyam II was lifted out of the water, its bottom looked like a forest, with all kinds of vegetation and wild life growing on it. After heavy scaling, scrubbing and pressure washing for an hour, its paint showed itself. This was the first time that Al had seen it, since before buying Ruyam II (Amnesia then), he could not physically inspect it with our inspector because of heavy rains and flooding in BVI at the time. We relied on inspector’s report later on, which pointed out some small deficiencies that were supposedly taken care of by BVI Yacht Charters. One of the deficiencies was a missing sail-drive cover. This time when we looked, both of them were missing. It appears that instead of placing the missing cover, they took the other one off. Al was not impressed when he saw that, and thought of getting them to pay for the installation. The inside of the sail-drive, along with all the small outlets for dirty water, were coral reef habitations. When we cleaned them I thought the authorities would give us a fine for killing red corals. It was a wonder how any water was able to discharge through he clogs inside the through-hull fittings.

The lift then brought Ruyam II to her resting place for the summer, next to many catamarans. The guys brought us a ladder and a long hose for water. We are set for a few days to continue living aboard until Tuesday, at which time we are moving to a hotel room almost next to the airport for two nights.

We feel sad that we will not be able to jump into water from our home any longer, but hey, this too will pass. It was a good thing that I had made a mosquito net for our bed before coming to Grenada; otherwise we would be eaten alive at night, sleeping next to a forest with a small creek.