Two months ago, we opened the shipping container like a giant birthday gift. Inside it we found the wood from the trees our boatbuilder had cut down in Denmark, all the rigging from last summer’s project in Marstal, canvas for our new sails, and more work than we had even imagined. Around that time, the first of the Pacific voyage crew started to arrive as well, just in time to lend a hand in the shipyard.
The shipyard workers slowly but surely welded on the big steel plates that make up our ten-ton new keel, meant to counterbalance the weight from our new rigging. A tent-maker repaired and refit our sails, a local machinist worked around the clock to make metal fittings for different systems on the ship, and we visited the paint shop next door so frequently they knew us on a first name basis. We served ropes and made wire seizings until we were dizzy, and the provisioning team worked hard to fill the freshly emptied shipping container with supplies. Mazatlán would be our most affordable port for a long time to come, so we bought as much as we could fill the ship with (plus a little more).
Getting the new jibboom and both masts on the ship was a big step forward in the transformation from junk heap to beautiful brigantine. Then a fresh coat of paint, some spars on the masts, and the new rigging took it the rest of the way.
In the beginning of May, the day we had all been eagerly anticipating finally arrived. It was time to put NEPTUN back in the water after almost five months on the hard, and to see if all our hard work had paid off. It was a huge relief when she stayed afloat. A few days later, I performed the official sign-on ceremony and the Pacific voyage crew all moved onto the ship while she was alongside in the shipyard. The shipyard cat made a convincing argument to come with us, but we couldn’t bring her along in the end. A few days after that we made our first test sail, conducted a stability test, and left for a nearby anchorage.
It was an exciting time. Things were finally starting to move in the right direction; however, we still had some more work to do before we could leave Mexico. Everything had to be sea-stowed and the sails had to be bent on. We had to go through our safety drills in case of fire, man overboard, or abandon ship and the greenhand crew had to complete their “up and over” training so they could start going aloft.
On May 17th, departure day finally arrived. We got up bright and early to heave the anchor up, and at long last we left behind our home of the last five months. Now the Pacific voyage has officially begun!
