She sat in the yard of Holland Marine in Green Cove Springs, Florida for about two weeks waiting on the specialized tractor-trailer to come pick her up. While there, Holland Marine also disassembled the remaining rigging of the mast and bubble-wrapped it for shipping.
When the truck arrived, Agaliha was lifted off of the yard stands and was placed in the trailer after it had been adjusted to fit her perfectly. Her mast was strapped along side the trailer. Since she is over 12 feet wide, she is considered a "Wide Load" and can't travel at night or on certain highways.
Two days later, she arrived in Ten Mile, Tennessee at Blue Springs Marina. Ten Mile is half way between Chattanooga and Knoxville on Watts Bar Lake. I had to launch her there because there is no facility in Chattanooga that can launch a sailboat this big. It required a special boat lift and crane. I was there when the truck arrived...and so did a torrential rain. I had planned to start unpacking her, but the rain changed those plans. I watched as the boatyard placed her in a steel cradle and laid her mast alongside.
A few days later, I returned to Ten Mile to buff and wax the mast and replace some light bulbs and other electrical work while the mast was horizontal. It might be ten more years before the mast is down again, so I wanted to do all the maintenance I could. The unusually warm February weather made all of these chores very pleasant. After I left, the guys in the boatyard buffed and waxed Agaliha's topsides (the sides from the waterline to the gunwale).
After a bitter cold weekend (19 degrees), I returned the next week to help the yard crew reinstall her mast. I was glad I had winterized all of her systems because boats are particularly vulnerable to freeze damage when they are not in the warm river water. The mast was raised without incident -- although it took an experienced crane operator and four men on the boat to do so.
The rig was tightened just enough to keep the mast vertical. Fine tuning it back into sailing condition would come later. At this point I was able to get the boom, vang, whisker pole and mainsail out of the main cabin of the boat. All of this gear had been preventing me from being able to move around in the cabin.
A few days later, David went with me to Ten Mile to help me bring Agaliha downstream to Chattanooga. When we arrived at 8:00 a.m., her decks were coved in ice! The engine fired right up and we loaded our gear aboard motored over to the fuel dock for fuel. With fuel and food aboard, we set out for Watts Bar Lock at 9:00 a.m.
By 10:00 a.m. The ropes had thawed and I was busy refitting the dodger to give us a little protection from the wind. We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, a following current and a following breeze. Since the bottom and propeller were perfectly clean, we were motoring as fast as Agaliha ever motors. We were doing almost 9 knots (speed over ground).
By 11:00, we were in the open gates of the lock, and by 11:25 we were exiting into Chickamauga Lake, Agaliha's home elevation for the first time in four months. This, of course, called for a shot of rum.
We had brought food, whiskey and sleeping bags for spending the night on anchor, but we were making such great time it looked like we could make it all the way home before sunset. This, too, called for a shot of rum. After all, it was a nice summy Dahee -- (hic)!
Seriously, it would have been a very cold night on an anchor. The engine heat would have kept us warm for a few hours. Without shore power, the only other heat source in Agaliha is a small propane heater. I don't sleep with it on because it can consume all the oxygen in the boat causing you to wake up dead.
Sure enough, we pulled into Gold Point Marina at 6:15 p.m. -- 15 minutes before sunset. I could almost feel Agaliha exhale as I backed her into her slip. Or maybe it was just me.
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