It's done..... Overproof has been extracted and placed to her cradle in
Mahone Bay. Some friends came down from Yellowknife to help out. We spent
the night before lift-out aboard. A bit of sailing and then onto the mooring
for some real drinking. A great time was had by all... too much fun
actually. I had only left one battery on the boat and we used it up burning
lights and tunes into the wee hours. I rolled out of the bunk at 0730 and
the battery wouldn't turn over the engine to make the short run to shore on
a totally windless morning. I towed us in with the dory.... rowing despite
the pounding of a hang-over and we tied alongside the float dock then went
for coffee.

A 40 ton crane arrived and we worked through the rain to position cradles
and drop masts. We started at 1000 hours and finished at 1430 hours with a
total of 11 boats pulled. 8 masts stepped including mine. That's the
smallest crane that has ever lifted my boat. I usually use a minimum of an
80 ton to 140 ton crane for extractions. This 40 tonner was on the deck of a
3 ton truck.

I helped out everybody I could and had competent experienced help from
friends who also assisted all the newbies on their first lift-outs. It was a
great day and we made lots of new friends.

What a beautiful place to have your boat stored.... it's a pristine,
colourful, historic fishing village. They offer the best rates on the South
Shore. Only $200 to store for the season. Crane charges are divided by all
11 haul-outs and should be quite cheap at $150 an hour for the crane.

I went down there today and had coffee with some of the other boaters....
great talking sailing and trading info.


CM