June 2009

 
June 2009

We finished a great year of sailing, starting in southern Spain in April 2008, cruising the western Mediterranean until October 2008, then sailing to the Canary Islands and across the Atlantic to Barbados. Then sailing north, visiting most of the Caribbean Islands alone the way, arriving in the British Virgin Islands just before the beginning of the hurricane season.

Our insurance company (Pantaenius) would cover Tenaya if she was in an approved storage cradle. There are only a small number of cradles available so we reserved one 6 months in advance at Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

Nanny Cay Marina was a convenient place to great Tenaya ready for storage.

To meet the insurance requirements we had to remove all sails, booms, dodgers and anything else that was loose on board. The mast could remain stepped as long as lines from the masthead were anchored to the ground.

Fresh water flush of Yanmar engine

One of the important projects before leaving Tenaya for 6 months was to flush the engine and the generator with fresh water. Once Tenaya was in the cradle the cooling water intake house was removed from the thru-hull fitting and placed into a bucket of fresh water. Then the engine was run while the bucket was continually filled until the engine had been completely flushed with fresh water.

The same was done with the generator, except it is much harder to get to.

After all possible items were taken off the dinghy was deflated, covered and secured on deck. All halyards were pulled to the top of the mast (with light line attached to make it easy to get them down again) and covered to protect them from the hot tropical sun.

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On the scheduled day we were at the lift a 7 am and the yard crew lifted Tenaya out of the water.

The "insurance company approved" hurricane cradle. The season cost of the cradle was $2500 in addition to the regular storage cost (about $1800 for the season).

To see the complete list of projects to get Tenaya ready for storage on the hard: To Do list

Go to Contents 2009

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Go to Contents 2008