May 25th, 2007, a day for endings, a day for beginnings. As we turned off the freeway and crossed the bridge into Annapolis we knew this was an important day, both for us and many others. Today was graduation day at the U.S. Naval Academy. The town was packed with proud parents and other dignitaries. As we drove past the stadium we saw a group of cadets, soon to be full fledged officers in the Navy or Marines dressed in full formal attire. It was a sight to behold. As parents of a sort ourselves we too were in  Annapolis for a “graduation day”. Makara, after her long journey from China was finally arriving. After eighteen months, soon we would begin to move to the commissioning phase of our project. An exciting time all around and the energy in the town added to the occasion.

We knew that Makara would arrive that day by truck after offloading from the freighter in Port Everglades Florida. It took some time to arrange the offload logistics, so there was some delay between the Pacific Hope arriving and getting the vessel unloaded. It was not clear whether Makara would arrive before we got to Annapolis or some time after we arrived. At some point the truck would have to stop due to wide load restrictions on the highway prior to the Memorial Day weekend, so there was some chance she would not make it at all, but we were not deterred. We just knew she would make it! What was surprising was that we got to Jabin’s boatyard where she would do the out of water commissioning just 30 minutes before she came barreling up the road to the yard. That was some trick after such a long journey.

When we got the call that the truck was less than 15 minutes away, we grabbed our camera and headed for the entrance of the boat yard to give Makara a proper welcome. The seconds ticked away as we squinted down the road looking for a first glimpse of the truck. Finally a small speck, could this be the truck? Yes it was! The shape got clearer, larger and larger as the semi moved down the road and finally turned into the yard. At that point it really struck us how big Makara was, virtually filling the pictures we were snapping wildly. And then she was moving away into the yard. Momentarily stunned in awe we took off like kids chasing an ice cream truck trying to catch up with Makara. Fortunately the truck stopped around a corner to prepare for offloading. Just as the cadets were taking the graduation walk over at the Academy stadium, Makara had her “walk” entering the yard.

Now that the initial ceremonies were over it was time for a good look-see. Until now all we had seen were pictures, now the real thing was looming large before us. Until Makara was moved from the truck to jack stands we would have to be content with walking around the vessel. We could not get too close because of the truck bed itself. Still we took a good long look around. We felt dwarfed by her size. As the picture shows this is more than a mere impression it was fact! As with all things associated with boatyards there would be a bit of time before the travel lift (the big one, she is no light weight) could work its way around to moving Makara so we took a small break to look to our growling stomachs.

When we returned from lunch the trailer was empty. Makara was no where in sight. Jabin’s is a big yard, so the next few minutes were spent driving around trying to find our boat. It was very frustrating, we must have covered every inch of the yard until, in the last inch, we found her. She was neatly set on her stands ready for inspection. The only catch was we did not have a ladder, great planning. Of course, a ladder big enough wouldn’t fit in our SUV. Fortunately, Scott from Wagner Stephens was coming over to open her up and get us aboard. Scott is the commissioning expert who will be in charge of getting the boat finished, and Scott had a ladder.

Nancy and I had our first “touch” of Makara once Scott arrived. We wanted to do it together and have a picture taken of the event. It was hard keeping our hands off her until then but we barely managed. Once that was taken care of we really pawed the vessel. First we took a good long look inside. We had very favorable first impressions of the workmanship and realization of our design ideas. The forward stateroom was better than our expectations if you can believe that. We saw the inlaid dinning table for the first time, more subtle than we expected but with a twist. Rather than using wildly contrasting woods some master craftsman managed to get one compass point to appear illuminated, and as you walk around the table a different one exhibits this effect. Very cool.

The galley is a work of art and I can’t wait to start making meals there. The navigation station is the real gem, with many nooks and crannies. Nancy tried sitting in the nav-staion chair and was somewhat disappointed at first. Her legs felt cramped and forced up against the nav-station desk. This persisted until I looked under the chair and found more controls than the space shuttle. Once the chair was adjusted she did not want to relinquish the seat.

We checked out the wiring, which was very well done and crawled around the aft storage. We were curious where the really big port lazerett came from. The Passport 470 we did a test sail on had a very shallow locker. Turns out is was just full! That port locker is massive. Still haven’t found the life raft storage area. Not sure what happened to that so stay tuned. Walking the deck is eye opening as it is a long way from the stern to the bow. Once up in the bow we took a look at the watertight compartment storage area. I expected it to be somewhat small. In reality it is deep and roomy. We need to get some steps in there or you could easily become trapped down there..

By the time we finished our first look inside and on the topside, at least two boats had been moved on either side and several hours had passed. We descended to ground level and made a thru-hull map for our reference. I am sure we wore Scott out as well, so we finally departed. We will return in a few days to talk with Thom Wagner and Scott about commissioning details. I am sure we will see her again then.

We stopped at an ice cream parlor to get a treat as we left town. We noticed a young lady, a Marine, eating an ice cream cone with sprinkles. She was happy, she was a freshly minted officer having graduated that day. It was very easy to lick our cones and feel a sense of happiness and excitement ourselves. This was truly an important day in our lives and in Makara’s saga.