Author: Maxine Maters
Blue Dove is wintering at y/c Laguna in Priozersk. Because I couldn’t decide yet where to take her next year. Either, we’ll go down through Russia again as it the quickest way to the Med. But at the same time Denmark and Scotland also beckon. I don’t have to decide yet. For now more important is that she gets through the winter. The temperature can get down to minus 35 but usually not for long, chorussed the men at the yard. Potable anti-freeze is either vodka (to -25) or pure alcohol (to – 40).
Out came the boat by crane. Blue Dove’s supports were made especially for her. That after a zillion question I had no answers to. “Does the design foresee in where the supports should go?” I did get me a bit worried. But the boat ended up on the hard all fine.
The marina is outside of town and feels very much in the middle of nowhere. At the end of the season I was the only only one spending the nights on the boat. The marina is full of security people who are supposed to look after your boat but couldn’t tie a knot if their lives depended on it. There are not about nautical safety but about all thieves and vandals in this middle of nowhere.
The winter ends of April when the ice will have melted and boat will refloat. I hope I will have come to a decision as to where to sail
