Safely high and dry. Talcahuano dry dock.

A floating dry dock is ready for the Europa just after ending her explorations and her sailing journeys in Patagonia and Chilean Channels.
The day was as sunny, calm and windless as it could ever be. At dawn all is ready for heaving anchor and starting the new maintenance and repair adventures.

As the dock goes dry, the crew is taken for a ride on a crane basket.

After a while we are collected again and brought to the ship. Look at her, she sits dry already, all well wedged and tied down.
No gangway yet, yay! Another lift with the crane basket! That gives us a good view of the ship.

Scaffolding with ladders to climb up and down is being readied while the jobs start on board.

Aloft it all seems high, higher than we are used to when climbing. Now there’s no water below. Behind are the Patagonian waters and the ones flowing north of the Humboldt Current. Now down below is the hard metallic dock floor. The spanker boom needs an overhaul. A couple of stays that tension the rig up there come down to deck. Bottle-screws are loosened or tightened.

Music to our ears, the rapidly repeating thunderous beats of the needle guns over the steel can be heard everywhere for the whole day, accompanied by the softer purring of the grinders, both alike outside and below decks. Busy in every corner. From the galley to the library. From the bow to the aft. From the bulkheads to the pipes. Welcome to the new shipyard period, the 2024 repair workshop and beauty salon for the old lady EUROPA.