The remnants of hurricane Orphelia brought an inundation of rain. We received over 8 inches/20cm in just over 12 hours.

The Independence Day holiday arrived with major drama. While we we're expecting thunderstorms, nothing prepared us for what was about to come. The squall that hit us approached from the north and was easily tracked as it approached our marina. The boat was healing 20 degrees at the dock but fortunately I recently changed our bow and stern lines, so they held. That was my only concern because had they let go we would have sustained serious damage or worse. I would have been far happier and more comfortable had we been out at sea. We're hoping this squall is the worst we experience all season.

A Walk around the is always a good time. It's fun to check out all the different power and sailboats waiting to be fixed, splashed and sold.

Heading home to our marina.

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@SV-true-love As we prepare to at last splash the boat, I have cleaned and scrubbed the interior. Following the winter on the hard, the boat smells musty. So, it's important to not only surface clean but to deep clean all areas on the boat. Opened all

@SV-true-love This summer, I'll be celebrating my 52nd year of sailing and I want to get people turned on to the sport. I've had many incredible experiences and want to share those experiences, general knowledge and love of sailing. Most importantly h

Our 1981 Gulfstar 39 Sailmaster has a fully encapsulated modified fin keel with a skeg hung rudder. The positive points of this design is that it's very sea kindly. She takes a great sea and with hef 43% ballast/displacement ratio, she's a very stiff boat. True Love is heavily laid up and weighs in at just over eleven tons when fully loaded. Due to her modified fin keel, shallow draft, and longer waterline, particularly for the time she was built, she sails well on all points of sail, but doesn't excel in any point of sail. She doesn't point high up into the wind and she's not particularly fast, down wind. But off the wind, in 15-20 knots of wind she's a 7-7.5 knot boat. With the tide and in the right conditions, we've topped 10 knots.

Last dinghy ride of the season. @TaylorsTravels

Towards the end of last summer I noticed a very subtle vibration in the wheel. It was almost unnoticeable. I checked inside the boat and didn't find anything unusual. But I knew we needed to drop the rudder just to make sure there was no structural issues. As it turned out, there was a fairly serious crack in the rudder, hidden by the skeg, that could have caused a catastrophic failure. Perhaps it could have been repaired, but no use taking a chance. We would always be thinking about it. The rudder post was also pitted. It will take 4-6 weeks and will be one more major issue, we no longer have to worry about.

When the boats on the hard it's important to spray the seacocks do they don't freeze up over the long winter.