Well Mike came today and started the refit of Cachalot's bottom.  He soda blasted the entire bottom and found several very small blisters and one spot that needs fairing.  I patched a spot where there was a through hull fitting for the depth sounder.  When he blasted off all the paint the patch needs some cosmetic work.  He will do that tomorrow and put on the first coat of barrier paint.  Thursday will be 3 more coats and the bottom paint will go on Friday.
Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

Memorial Day    Thank you to all the Vets that served.

This is Cachalot at anchor at her home port of Squamtum MA in Quincy Bay

Mike Nasuti of MTNK was to start the project of soda blasting the hull of Cachalot last Friday but it rained all day.  He will start tomorrow weather permitting.  The next step will be top check and repair any blisters and install two coats of barrier coat.  Last he will apply two coats of bottom paint for tropical waters because Cachalot will be in the warm waters of NC.

I stood a required "night watch" at Savin Hill YC Saturday night from 2200 to 0300.  There was a 11.6 ft. high tide in Boston at midnight.  ( usual is 9.9)  The whole back yard where the Cachalot is was flooded.  However, by the time my watch ended the tide had gone out and I was able to get to the boat.   Boston was cold but I lit the trawler lamp and a little alcohol fireplace I have on board and went to bed warm and toasty.

Kevin Montaque of Northeast Rigging is scheduled to come Friday and un-step the mast and prepare it for shipping.  He will remove all the standing rigging and replace it.  All the running rigging will also be checked and replaced as necessary.

The boat projects are coming along, however, there is still alot to do.  My proposed schedule is:

June 28th Retire
July 5th Move to New Bern NC
July 18th Come back to Boston to finish up the boat projects and get her ready to ship
July 22th Ship Cachalot from Savin Hill YC to Annapolis
July 24th Cachalot arrives at Jabin Yacht Yard
July 26th/27th Rich and Jeff join me
July 27th/28th Leave for New Bern NC

We will post more of our scheduel after another crew meeting

Fair winds
Ed Gagnon

I just arranged for Rob Lee of boattransport@.com to ship Cachalot from Savin Hill south.

I just thought I would add this to see if anyone recognizes this ship.

The crew of Rich Terry, Jeff Gardiner, and I had our first meeting last week.  We decided that to sail the entire way on Cachalot would be too much of a time commitment for each of us.  By establishing a drop dead date of August 14 as an arrival date then adding four days for inclement weather and how long we want to sail we figured out where to will start the trip.  The boat will be trucked to the Jabin Yacht Yard in Annapolis.  I will return to Boston from New Bern to get the boat ready to ship then help rig the boat with the yard's help.  The crew will join me on July 20th.  Our current plan is to sail down the Chesapeake to Norfolk.  At Norfolk we will enter the ICW and motor down the Dismal Swamp Channel.  As we exit the Dismal Swamp we will decide to either proceed down the ICW or sail down the various Sounds.  I hope that we can have a good window of weather to complete the trip in two weeks.  Rich is the navigator and will be posting our proposed course soon.  Anyone that can recommend a Yacht Club or overnight stop please chime in.

It has been my dream for my entire working career to sail home for retirement.  I have sailed Cachalot, my Bristol 24, for over 25 years.  Now that I am retiring on June 28 and moving to North Carolina that dream is about to come true.  I am refitting Cachalot from the keel up to prepare for the trip.   I have a great crew to make the trip with me.  They are Jeff Gardiner and Rich Terry.  I will be posting updates on the projects and our planning meetings.  This is a description of Cachalot that I wrote several years ago: 

Cachalot is one of a kind.  I bought her from an executive of the Bristol Corp.  She was custom made for her.  The rig is an off shore rig (which was an option at the time) from a Bristol 30.  It was very heavy duty.  I have replaced the standing rigging over the 14 years that I have owned her and have down sized a little, but not too much, to save money and weight aloft.  Because the rig and mast extrusion are so heavy I was able to put on a cutter rig without running back stays.  It gives great sail choice for heavy wind.  I also put on smaller life lines as the originals were 3/8 in. or better.

I replaced the front ports with opening Lewmar ports with screens.  It has been very nice as the main hatch is also screened and you get good ventilation on a buggy night.

Cachalot is dark British Racing Green, gold leaf lettering, gold leaf cove stripe, tan bark sails and has hemlock tweed Sunbrella canvas.  My 10 foot Herishoff rowing/sailing dingy was made to match.  I think it is classy.  

When I put the anchor platform on I had a bow pulpit made to match what I saw in Europe.  They called it a rams horn or stag horn design.  It is designed to dock bow to the quay and enter/exit over the bow platform.  I have found it very nice.  It gives a lot of privacy in the cockpit when you dock bow in.

Cachalot also has a full mahogany interior with a finished gel-coat headliner.  Also she is ballasted with lead and very heavy, weighing in at 7300 empty.  The over ballasting with lead makes for a very stable boat.  I get 10 to 15 degrees of heel and then she stops unless I am doing something very stupid.

Please follow along with our journey and offer comments on our course when I post it.

Ed Gagnon