ADVENTURES Next Adventures - Adventures with the crew of MV ADVENTURES

There are many stories and photos from this winter season in Marathon that we want to catch up on, but that will be the topic for later blog entries.
The big news to report is that ADVENTURES has been safely loaded aboard the 450' Dutch freighter EUROGRACHT in the Port of Palm Beach for her journey through the Panama Canal and up to Victoria, BC, Canada. This is the ship approaching Lake Worth inlet.

She's due to arrive in Victoria around May 9th and we're driving across country to meet her and to begin some years of cruising in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Preparing our only home for a big ocean journey is a daunting task - we worked for about a week to get everything lashed down, stowed, secured, and ready.
On Wednesday afternoon we drove ADVENTURES to the side of the EUROGRACHT and watched the loadmasters bring lots of heavy straps aboard and then position the wide lifting straps from one of the ship's cranes.

straps

loadmaster

Divers were in the water to help position the huge lifting straps under the hull and make sure they were clear of the stabilizer fins. At the last minute we had to lower 6 antennas so they would clear the overhead lifting bar. Once everything was ready for lifting we boarded a small launch and waited near the ship to watch her get settled on deck.

ready for lift

We've seen our boat hauled out of the water for maintenance periodically, but it's a different feeling watching our home lifted high out of the water an onto the deck of a ship!

on her way up

On Thursday we were allowed back into the Port and aboard the ship so we could put the antennas back up - the loadmaster told us the antennas would ride better upright. It was very interesting to get aboard and see the deck full of more boats, and the welded cradles and stands, and all the straps holding boats to the deck. The crew had still not finished installing the spiderweb of straps, but it's a pretty impressive operation.

on deck

The EUROGRACHT finally departed around midnight on Thursday, heading for the Panama Canal. We have a long drive ahead of us, and we'll use that time to catch up on the blog from our busy winter. We'll also be watching the weather to see what the EUROGRACHT and ADVENTURES are experiencing. Victoria, here we come!

Permalink Comments (2)

Categories: 2013 Cruise

2 Comment(s):

Pam and Stephen said...

Enjoying your happy news from the anchorage at West Bay, New Providence. Will be following your blog and wishing you safe land travel and Adventures.

April 25, 2013 6:52 PM

Lisa Walshe said...

Watching your travels with interest, your going to an area we would really love to explore. It is just a little far away from Australia. Hoping to meet up with you both one day as Nancy has told us all about you. Best of luck and great travels, Lisa and Phil PS Phil had to get on the boat and be dropped into the HK harbour when our boat arrived in HK, he had never driven it and she had never been used, luckily it all worked and he then took her through HK harbour for his first trip on her.. I was driving back to meet him. This end in Brisbane they were more safety oriented and would not let him ride her down, instead you need to be put back into her by a dinghy! Quite tame by comparison and by then he was familiar with the boat! Luckily we were young and fearless!

April 23, 2013 5:19 PM