Our sailing season 2015 ended up at Tiber river, Gesti Nautica shipyard, Fiumicino, Rome, Italy. It took quite a long while looking around trying to find a secure and reasonably priced place equipped with big enough crane for 11Ton boat and proper cradles. Some shipyards are fully booked in October, some don't have a proper crane, some use tripods, or make custom wooden cradles istead of investing in proper well engineered steel cradles. After three days pedalling around on my bike, talking and getting offers, I have succeeded to find a good match of the above requirements, plus friendly and experienced professionals Luca and Stefan and their crew, willing to take care about our Billabong during winter months. Gesti Nautica Srl are licensed service centre for Comar Yachts, and know what they are doing. Billabong is in good hands there. After 3 days waiting for "crane day", finally the D-Day came, out she went from the water, our little ship. Got a proper belly power wash, was positioned on secure and solid cradle and moved to the storage area. And then I spent a couple days more, preparing Billabong for winter sleep. Long, long list of decomissioning all systems and equipment - a lot of work. Not that very difficult or complicated work, just so many things to do, and everything takes time. Giant planes roaring on take off from the nearby Fiumicino airport were sort of reminder about my previous life skydiving, before reincarnation into sailing. A constant learning process - that's what makes skydiving and sailing both so much catching and exciting lifestyles. We are learning Ocean now. |