Morning hours
Today marked the day when Zanshin would finally get back into her element and get splashed. I worked in the hotel during the morning hours and checked out at 11 AM. Trailing my suitcase, which contained my toiletry kit, my water kettle, and coffee-making accessories, I headed to the docks in preparation for launching.
Lunchtime
The splash was scheduled for 14:30, and the yardmaster, Lindsay, told me that it might be a bit later. I saw that there was a boat in the slings and they were working the manual bilge pump on it, so I assumed that it would be much later indeed. Nonetheless, when I returned to the boat from my lunch at 14:30, they had already cut away the rods holding the stands together and had started lifting the boat.
It took only minutes to get her to the haulout pit and lower Zanshin to the water. Speedy came aboard to check on the prop shaft seal and the waterproofing work forward while I tried to get the engine started. The loud noise of the travelift meant I couldn’t hear if the starter was turning over the engine. I’d had the starter battery charging for a whole day, so it should have enough juice to start the diesel. Once the travelift engine was shut down, I could hear the engine turn over, and after a couple of turns, it fired right up.
Dockside
Lindsay had arranged for me to go alongside the yard docks rather than go to the main docks. This meant that the daily rate charged in US$ would be billed to me in XCD, given the exchange rate of 1 US$ = 2.71 XCD, which is a considerable discount.
Speedy came aboard to assist with throwing the lines. We did a short circle coming out of the dock, and with the help of the shoreside crew, Zanshin was quickly attached to the docks right next to the haulout pit.