Out but two days late

Wednesday we canceled Sweet Dreams being pulled. We had a full gale with gusts in the 30’s or more. With 3-4 footers on the river just getting away from the dock would have almost a guarantee of crashing into other boats. Thursday winds were down to 15-17 mph and guests only in the mid 20’s. My friend Ed and I took Sweet Dreams without incident to Cape Marina. It was a little over 9 miles (up wind) with 2-drawbridges and a lock. Locking through we raised up ~2 feet. The diesel performed flawlessly giving me more confidence in her. While challenging we dock and undock without incident including shoehorning into a dock they said was 14’ X 45’. It turned out it was 12’ X 35’, we got in, we are 11.5’ X 42’. On Friday Nov 3 we waiting for the marina to launch a 60-65 footer before taking Sweet Dreams out. It was quite a show as the wind still about 17 mph requiring 4 lines to the lift in order to hold the boat. All line were dropped at the same time as they motored out, everyone clapped. Now it was our turn. The very good news was since the big boat was launched we would be using the 70 ton lift which meant we could pull straight in… no backing! We are out now pulled in and ready for the work to begin. Below are some bottom picks. Oh, the spots on the skeg are not as bad as I feared. We just had the bottom cleaned. We wanted to see how good a job they were doing (it is great). The dark line on the bottom of the keel is the muck we are in when the river is down. The video below is of the rocket launch from the condo in Canaveral we are staying in while the boat is out of the water.