It was time to roll up the sleeves and get HIPPOKAMPOS ready for the summer. We plan to switch out the heavy dinghy so before we left home we had our Walker Bay registered and numbered. Previously a pond boat SEA MONKEY was now going to take on a new life as our tender to HIPPOKAMPOS and reside on the boat deck. Fortunately when we arrived a the boat yard we found many boats already launched leaving more than enough room to hoist the dinghy up to her resting place. Barry, the previous owner, came by to help and brought along all the stores that he kept for us through the winter that included everything from freezable liquids to electronics to the dinghy outboard.
We’re scheduled to splash on Friday, June 10th so we only had this week to get things ready since the weather window for cruising up the coast to Portland, Maine looks to be for Saturday. We focused on everything that wouldn’t be accessible once in the water so that meant getting the bottom and topsides in shape. Since the boat is federally documented it also meant placing the name and hailing port on the transom to USCG requirements. We also changed out the engraving on the owners plate to reference the new name, documentation number and ourselves as current owners. The new prop had been delivered so we definitely had to make time to get it mounted.
Marvelous! :)