As I saw Deltaville (Virginia USA) fade in the background I felt the pangs of parting. Deltaville Marina had been home to me for only a short time while I prepared Omache for her voyage to The Panama Canal. The pangs were really because I was once again leaving the known for the unknown. And also in the short time I was there I had made so many good friends who had welcomed me into their lives. Omache had been on the hard for almost two years – and must have been feeling like a duck out of water. The Chesapeake weather had been kinder than the Florida weather where she was last laid-up and she was pretty clean inside and out although as Jonathon, a friend and fellow South African (Annapolis Yacht Sales) said to me “she’s looking a little tired”. There is only one thing to be said for living on the hard…it’s hard. So both Omache and I were very keen to get back into the water. But first there were all of the surprises you encounter when you leave your boat on the hard for a while. I filled the water tanks with 65 gallons and soon had 65 gallons of water in the bilge. The seam had ruptured.
It always takes a while to get used to being on the boat again and remembering how every thing works. At first you have to consciously think about what you are doing – eventually it just becomes second nature and you just do and don’t think. Closer to a state of bliss. The oneness of the sea, the boat, and me. In the meantime there were things to try out for the first time such as the Schwing wind vane. I had spent a lot of time and money getting the wind vane to a state that it hopefully would work. Because it needed to be mounted on the stern of the boat I had to take down or change many things to make room for the wide swing of the wind vane itself. This meant dismantling the radar pole at the rear of the boat and mounting the radar on the mast. Also the large solar panel that I had between the backstays now had to be moved. Tom, an ex-neighbour of mine from Leuty Street helped me dismantle the radar pole that was a good weight as it was nine feet long and was made of stainless steel. Together we worked out a way to turn my bimini frame into an arch to support the three solar panels – one on the top and one on each side of the boat. The windvane was finally bolted on to the rear pulpit and the new parts that I had had machined (there were no longer parts available from Germany) were fitted and suddenly Omache looked very ‘Blue Water’. To cap it off I painted the Maple Leaf (Canadian flag) on the vane itself. No more buying flags for the wind to chew up!