Intermezzo has a maximum beam (width) of 19 feet 10 inches. The Travelift at Marina Puerto Escondido can accommodate a beam of up to 20 feet. That means two whole official inches of wiggle room. There was actually a little bit more.
However, the slipway for the Travelift is only 21 real feet wide, requiring me to back Intermezzo between two big, hard concrete sidewalls with seven inches of space on each side...in a crosswind. We stationed two people on each side of the boat to serve as intelligent, movable fenders and had another couple of people landside holding tag lines from the bow and stern. We backed in without incident, but I'll admit the process had my undivided attention the whole time.
Then it was just a matter of carefully positioning the Travelift slings and slowly, slowly, slowly lifting Intermezzo up and out of the slipway. Javier, the Travelift operator, and I both let out a sigh of relief when the boat was finally hauled clear and safely lowered onto the ground in the dry storage yard. I joked that, "They say there are no atheists in foxholes. I say there are no atheist Travelift operators or boat owner watching them."
Intermezzo will sit on land here until November and I figure out what happens next.
Tomorrow we do the last of the cleaning up and final packing and then we head to La Paz by bus on Friday. Saturday we fly to NYC.
It's really ending.
 |
| Intermezzo's human fenders at work in tight quarters |
 |
| Careful extraction from the slipway |
 |
| A sail-less Intermezzo, all canvas removed for hurricane season |
