After six weeks on the hard and being worked on nearly every day, Yahtzee is finally back where she belongs — in the water. Of course, when we pulled her out in mid-October to address a tiny leak, it turned into a much, much larger, time consuming and expensive job than we ever envisioned. As usual, we’ve made the best of our time off the boat and learned a few things along the way. Fortunately, though, it’s done now. And we know that we did it right.

Without the amazing work done by our fiberglass guy and new friend, Ethan, “doing it right” never would have been possible. His quality craftsmanship is not only something to be admired, but his attention to detail and assurance that he wanted to make it better than when it came out of the factory provides us with a peace of mind that can’t be matched. For an in depth look at how he fixed everything, check out his thread on the project at Cruisers Forum.

The new rudder caused the biggest wait while our home was on the hard, and it was worth it. We don’t know how long the old rudder was cracked and filled with water, but spending the time and money to get a new one now gives us a baseline and a fin that we can be 100% confident in. Thanks also goes out to Al and the rest of the team at Foss Foam Products (newrudders.com) in Florida for a job well done on the rudder.

And I couldn’t write this post without giving a big and sincere thank you to the many friends and family members who supported us along the way. With two children, not being in our home was difficult at times, but we made it work because of the people in our lives. Thanks to Mike and Maurisa, Lief and Kate, Matt and Katy, and Marcus and Ashley for your hospitality while all of this was going on. Opening your homes to us was amazingly generous and hugely helpful — so thank you! And to Darren and Erin for providing us with an open-ended offer of a place to stay. Your house is truly a home away from home for us, and we are forever grateful.

After being out of the water for so long, we need to get moved back aboard and wipe off the weeks of boatyard grime that inevitably come with being on the hard. We’ll be back out exploring soon, cruising the Pacific Northwest and sharing our adventures as we go. And for that, we couldn’t be happier.