I’m on my way! I still can’t completely believe I’m going through with this. I’ve had so much support and encouragement that I could hardly have backed out if I wanted to. It was hard leaving my son for the summer, we spend so little time together these days. But he’s got his own life now and I’m very proud of him and what he’s doing with his life (as long as he takes good care of my truck). Time to move out and look after myself. So first things first, I have to have a ‘last’ Caesar at the airport (in case I can’t get Clamato over there):

And it’s on to Calgary. I was unable to get a British Airways flight from Vancouver when I booked, so had to get to Calgary first. Not a big deal, pretty cheap. Except I found out today that the luggage charge for 3 checked bags (2 suitcases and a backpack) is more than the whole flight! Jeez…

The other perk of BA is the lounges. Even in Calgary I can use the SwissPort lounge, self-serve everything:

Oh, my poor liver. I hope I can remember some of the summer (I’ll take notes).

More flying…

Great flight from Calgary to London, British Airways ‘Club World’ (business class) is awesome. Full reclining so I could actually get some sleep. Then a lounge in Heathrow with showers and (more) booze.

Off to Manchester to meet Wendy, she’s putting me up at her place (thank you!!!) for a few days while the boat gets finalized.

Oh, about the boat; the survey went well, almost everything checked out fine. Just the cutlass bearing needs replacing, so they knocked some off the price. I’ll get that, the engine servicing and hull ‘blacking’ (painting with bitumen) done while it’s out of the water. Then a checkout run and sign all the final papers. I’m hoping this will all happen by Friday but the mechanical might take longer. We’re not sure if it’ll have to go back in the water in the meantime (lack of space). That adds cost since each time it’s pulled is expensive. Rather avoid that. Luckily they’re offering me a deal if they can leave it out of the water (free). Here’s hoping.

The surveyor was amazed at the condition of the hull, he said it had a very small amount of minor pitting but was full thickness everywhere he checked (‘hundreds of locations’). As replating is a huge deal, I’m VERY relieved about this. Painting the upper side is cheap and easy in comparison. There’s a bit of surface rust there which I’ll tackle over the summer and maybe have a new professional paint job done over the winter.