Drambuie Hauled Away

Last Thursday Jason and I took Drambuie to Bennett Brothers Boatyard to have her hauled. Although the temperature was around 60 degrees it was still chilly with a NE wind blowing 15-20 knots off the water (water temp was 55 deg.). The trip was uneventful but long since we fought the current the entire trip plus wind against us two-thirds of the way. Last year the trip took four hours, this time, six.

The most fun was getting the Isabel Holmes Bridge to open during rush hour. The bridge is one of two which cross the Cape Fear from Wilmington to points south including Myrtle Beach. The first picture shows Drambuie waiting to be hauled with the bridge in the background. Okay, I have to admit, even with rush hour traffic I doubt we stopped more then 20-30 vehicles.


The boat wasn't actually hauled until Monday due to backlog at the boatyard. The local currents forced the haul outs to be tightly scheduled to the tide and sometimes have a narrow window. I drove the boat to the lift and other then playing a little ping-pong off the pilings it went smoothly. Since they wanted to haul two boats during slack they had me move up before the current fully stopped so that plus a quartering wind made it a little challenging. It wasn't graceful but my litany has become "no one hurt, nothing broken = good docking."


Shortly after haul out she was pressure washed and I was surprised and pleased to see that the bottom paint was still in very good condition. The only area encrusted was the propeller and shaft.


If all goes according to plan, she'll get a paint job on her bottom and be put back in the water on Thursday. If done early Thursday we will bring here back home that same day.