Since our boat is currently in the Great Lakes, we pull her out every autumn and place her into heated storage. The mast comes down, the sails all come off, and we work on the punch-list throughout the cold months.

As soon as the weather warms we splash Tortuga and reverse the winterizing process. Top of the list is re-rigging her, which is always a bit complex given the shear amount of running and standing rigging that we have. Tortuga has a main sail with three single-line reefing points, twin backstays as well as two running backstays, two forestays each with roller furling sails, a lazy jack system that can often be puzzling, and an SSB rope antenna that goes up on a spare halyard from the transom. Lots of stuff going on, and that’s just the rigging. The myriad of electrical systems need to be sorted out, a water maker, the marine toilet (MSD); the list goes on.

All-in-all it takes a solid week to get Tortuga commissioned, cleaned, and stocked and provisioned. The intent is to have her in her seasonal, Chicago slip on 1 May.