Today is launch day

 

Jeremy preparing SD's bottom

We are going to be launched this afternoon, Friday 22^nd July 2022. The last time Sal Darago was on the water was October 2020. We’re excited and nervous. Have we done everything? We’ve had endless lists and ticked off jobs everyday, so we hope so. In addition, we’ve had lots of paperwork to do. We applied to enter Cocos Keeling Islands and permission has been granted. The authorities in Mauritius seem to be happy for us to enter Rodrigues and the harbourmaster in La Reunion says he’s booked our berth. This morning we collected our clearance document from Andrew at the Australian Border Force Office, so we’re good to go.

If all goes well with the launch, we going to have a short shake down sail and motor locally to make sure everything is working as it should. 

So, what’s left to do? The hire car will be returned this afternoon. As long as SD is not taking on water, we’ll head out to Tegg’s anchorage and drop the hook. Tomorrow (Saturday) we’ll venture out to sea and return later. On Monday, we tie up to the wharf in the DoT Small Boat Harbour, walk into town and buy fresh bread and provisions. All the non-perishable provisions have already been purchased and stored. We’ll need a taxi for our return.

Dinner ashore the night before launching

On Tuesday, we leave for Cocos Keeling Islands approximately 1300 nautical miles away. We expect this trip to take about two weeks.

Love and best wishes to all our readers.