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Getting Back on Track

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Things are back on track already and that’s mostly thanks to Dean and the team at Gold Coast City Marina and also Joe at Australian Marine Enterprises (AME). Immediately after hearing the news of the accident, Gold Coast City Marina and AME stepped forward and offered to repair the damage and see that Ella’s Pink Lady gets back on the water as soon as possible. Ella’s Pink Lady has been treated like royalty and we’ve all been made to feel completely at home at such a fantastic facility.

After coming out of the water and into a shed on Thursday, work is already well underway. The damaged rigging, lifelines and bow fitting have been removed and the first layers of fiberglass have been laid on over the damaged areas. All things considered I’m still marveling at how well we did come off. Talk about a tough little boat. As we’ve been going over Ella's Pink Lady

we’ve been discovering all sorts of unexpected things that did survive like the Hella navigation lights that worked perfectly despite a direct hit! I’ve also been thinking about how nice it was to be able to turn on my trusty Yanmar engine to get us home and to be able to use my Wichard knife to cutt away tangled lines. What a good job it did!The guys have estimated that it’ll take 10 days to get Ella’s Pink Lady looking her best again and the rigging should’t be much longer. Luckily we’re still got some leftover pink paint handy! It's such a relief to have an enthusiastic team hard at work because I have to say, although I’m still completely positive, it might have taken me and the team a little while to have the energy to restore Ella's Pink Lady.

I’ll finish up with another thank you to all my sponsors who’ve made it clear that they're here through thick and thin.

Jessica
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