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Of course, how can you name your boat the Spirit of 14 without launching her on the 14th – this milestone would be in May, we couldn´t wait ! You can imagine our state of spirit, now with the team complete hitting it hard, the budget filled up until launching her !!
The raining season had filled up the river nice and high, almost touching the bow. But we had only a small window to get her in the water before the water level was dropping again… and there was still sóó much to do, OEF !
Caulking the seams was one, a big job…. but again, 500 years’ experience left us flabbergasting with open mouths ! The easiness and speed the team was doing this, very impressive and the quality – after 3 years still no drop leaking ! Due to the increased media attention and Canoa´s contacts in the South, we got 2 important sponsors on the very last moment. 3M for the sealing compound, used for the seams and …. YES! Jotun paints for the primer, normal and anti fouling !! That was the best what could happen at that moment… a few boxes of pinga went down that night….
For the actual launching we had many visitors, whatta crowd was coming, especially from Holland and Canada – whow ! We had to make a deal with a neighboring “motel” to sleep them all. A motel is a sort of 3 hour bedroom space for couples who doesn´t have the privacy at home, very popular here in Brasil. Our parents were surprised with the mirrow on the ceiling…. Having breakfast seeing the smiling couples leaving or the anxious ones arriving; hahaha – first time in their lives !! But, no time to wonder for too long: work to be done guys. Painting, helping moving lumps of wood, some went to schools and such to distributed invitations and other just enjoyed the scenery and shot picture and videos – wonderful to have your beloved ones around !! And also they had been living for all this time; they were more nervous then we !!
The Tocorimé was gracefully lifted and a type of sled was being installed under her keel. Ready for the big day ! Hold on…..almost !! We had no idea about the stability of an empty vessel ! Mark´s attempts to get a satisfactory guess went up in smoke, no way we could be sure…. Well, just put some ballast in, as long as she doesn´t tip over, its ok, no ? Ballast ? Well, for the moment bags of sand would do the trick…. Can you imagine carrying 250 x 50kg bags of sand up the ladder, trying not to brake the bags so sand would fill you bilge ?? A job you wouldn´t give to your worse enemy ! But they all went in, the little beach was almost totally in our bilge – the risk of tipping-over still existed but was minimum…
D-Day came. It was really true ! We really would put her in the water today – the dream would be afloat after 11 years – Oh marvelous Gloria JUMP !! We had the priest sprinkling, media and schools all-over, hundreds of visitors, boats in front, a group of folkloric dancers and lots and lots more…. It was a spectacular event !! The big D( caterpillar would push her on the led and a big jacht would pull from the water side…. It all went very well, inch for inch she went down ! But…. Just 5 cm before she would hit the water, she was stuck ! Like she wanted to say “well, I looked to the water for 4 years and I want to enjoy this moment” !! Stuck se was indeed, no more movement…. Sh*t, the champagne !! That would help. She was baptized by the kids, one time the bottle bounced back, leaving Martine scarfed telling her story up to now, haha ! And yes, there she went… the Tocorimé slid in her new surrounding like a lady, graceful and seemingly happy. We were !! We were outrageously happy !! She looked so beautiful, the painted waterline was on the spot and she tipped a little backwards, just like we thought… YES ! YES ! YES ! YES ! YES ! YES ! YES !
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