Closing the Chapter

On Wednesday, 14 October, at 08:30, I finally get my haul-out slot. I spent about three weeks in Seward harbor waiting for a "waiver of subrogation" from my boat insurer in Switzerland. The SMIC yard in Seward is government-run and insists on this waiver to protect itself from claims by its clients' insurers. A very American thing, with the lawyers dialed to eleven.

I used the downtime in the lovely town of Seward to catch up on other fronts, including a cardio workout every other day. I also picked up a project that lay dormant over the summer: TameWind, my little PredictWind killer. Every time I use PredictWind, the appalling user experience leaves me aggravated, and that for an app I pay 400 USD a year for. So I am having Claude build me a better tool. It also brings me up to date on AI-driven software development. I enjoy the uninterrupted stretches in flow in my floating office.

A fortunate encounter: I met Guy, who lives most of the year in Seward and escapes to Arizona for the darkest part of the winter. He generously helped me with the haul-out and with sorting out the logistics. Gregor of SV Aegir helped me flush the engines and do the oil changes on the saildrives. It’s nice to be in a community of likeminded people.

Hafiz now sits on the hard on cribs of stacked timber blocks, ready to face the winter and its storms. I did my best to protect her from the 100 km/h winds to be expected.

Temperatures will drop below zero, though nothing crazy: around −7 °C. Still enough to call for a thorough winterization. 18 gallons of RV antifreeze have replaced the water in the various systems: engine cooling, freshwater supply, watermaker, dishwasher and the seawater toilets.

As always, there were surprises along the way. The air conditioning, unused for a year, went up in smoke when I tried to flush its cooling and condensate pumps. The watermaker needs a jig to replace its membranes. And on the very last day I found a leak at a hatch that lets rainwater drip into the chest below.

Leaving the boat I always find har - it breaks the interdependency. Having her on the hard helps a lot, and I have a good feeling about the place. It is as good as can be. There is a solid list of jobs waiting for spring, and I shall return with big bags of parts and tools.

I'm looking forward to coming back to Seward after the winter to crack open the next chapter: Southwards!Read more