It is 4 AM when the alarm clock resonates in my ears and it is cold 18° C [64,4° F]! outside. We hoist anchor and I slowly manoeuvre Guppy between the other anchored boats, edging closer to the beach… Ten centimetres [4 inches] … Five centimetres [2 inches]… Yes, she touches ground. Ten minutes later Guppy is standing upright, solid as a rock. We moored her tightly to two piles on the beach that are meant for yachts with a keel to stand dry, and little by little her under water hull showed naked as the sea receded. I found a cheap solution to get Guppy out of the water. Here the big tides – up to 7 meters [21 feet] – bring strong currents that may be a bother but it can also be used to some advantage… Daylight comes and we start working. First, we removed all the marine growth from the hull by using scrapers. This goes better than expected so we have enough time to apply one layer of antifouling before the next high tide comes in. Then after nine hours of hard work the high water is back and we have to make sure Guppy is well secured to the piles so she doesn’t go bouncing or rubbing against them with the swell and the winds. We just have enough time for a quick wash and a bite before the next low tide and we can apply another coat of antifouling. It is already the middle of the night when I crawl into bed. But this time the familiar sound of the waves lapping at Guppy’s hull is not there and I am not gently swayed to sleep as I usually am, Guppy is standing aground on the beach near my dinghy with the water more than 100 [ 300 feet] meters away – I feel like a fish on dry land… But by 5 AM Guppy is happily floating again and we move her back to deep water and drop anchor. It was the first time in more than a year that Guppy had been out of the water. I am glad that this is over now because I get a little bit anxious when Guppy is on dry land and not where she should be, in the water. But this was well worth all the effort and now she is ready to head to the sea again in a while.

Laura