Garcia Boatyard - 49° 38' 48" N 01 35' 47" E

When we rocked up to the Garcia office for our Monday morning meeting, we couldn't help but notice that a mast-less Exploration 45 was parked outside the shed door where we had previously seen our hull parked.  Could this be o-u-r boat?

Nice boat.  Could it be ours???

Marie, our project manager, confirmed that it was our boat!  Although we had come to the yard to put the Boat Show goodies that we had acquired into Garcia-provided storage, we were meeting with Christophe, the after-sales guy to go over spare parts and after-delivery emergency equipment that we were putting on our order.  We would not be getting a look ON BOARD this marvellous aluminium creature.  We would just be admiring through the meeting room window.  Our boat tour was tomorrow.

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The next day, we had mistakenly thought that the meeting was at 11 am, rather than the scheduled 10 am.  at 10:15 we received a text message from a puzzled Marie.  "Are you coming for the meeting?  Don't you want to see your boat?"

Completely failing at being casual about touring the boat.

Edmonton, Sean's birthplace, is the home port of Chinook.

The main saloon.  No table yet - it is a work in progress.

First view of the galley - stove and oven to the left, double-drawer fridge/freezer combo to the right.

The tech room looks mostly finished and ready for provisions.

Guest cabin.  We promise to have a mattress by the time you get here.

One of the electricians getting the inverter set up.  You can also see the back of the washing machine.

Here's the sea berth (fifth bunk) in the passage between the galley and forward cabin.

The forward head (bathroom), almost complete.

Looking aft from the forward cabin, towards the galley.

Forward cabin.  It looks cozy already.

Looking back through the galley towards the guest cabin and companionway.

Nav station with most of the instruments installed.

Cork decking installed.  Better insulation than teak decking, not as hot to walk on when it has been in the sun.

The other side looks just as nice.  There's our mast on the ground, waiting for the crane to lift it into place!

Seeing the name on the bow has turned a generic-looking Exploration 45 into our Chinook.
We are very happy with the logo.

That's 100 meters (370 kilograms) of 13 mm galvanized chain.

The missing propeller was quite obvious, but it will be in place before Chinook's first splash.

These are some of the many, many photos and videos we took of the rigging while it was on the ground, waiting to be stepped (put on) by crane.  It is much easier to make note of the details when you can walk around it, rather than hanging in a bosun's chair 20 metres in the air.

We are getting more eager by the minute.  Garcia has given us a date of March 11 for the hand-over and the start of a week's worth of training on the specifics of Chinook.  We will do our best to be productive until then.

!!!!