Preparing for the off

After a week of ditch crawling, we kind of realised that there was not much time before our winter berthing contract would finish. April 1 should be our departure date. The poor boat was filthy from the snow and rain so the first job was a huge wash off. That was interrupted one morning when a converted lifeboat trying to turn in the marina wrapped itself against our anchor, added some scratches to the hull and needed serious fending off as they slid past trying to turn the ungainly thing,

The helmsman is a good guy though - runs local boat trips and is well qualified. Basically the old lifeboat would just not turn through the wind. Here is the offending boat doing what she usually does, sitting tied up:

As you can see, it is a quality craft.


Part of pre-departure prep was for the captain to replace an O ring in the coolant return tube from the turbocharger on the main engine (the big pipe in this picture):

This tube had started to drop some ominous black bits onto the top of the manifold suggesting that the O ring was dying. It was. Removing it means draining some of the coolant, and then some more when you find that your guesstimate of the amount needed was optimistic.

Personally I don't like tubes that just slot into an O ring but as it had lasted for over 10 years it must be basically OK. Rebuilt, coolant topped up, it ran without leaking on another "go for a burn around the bay to make sure that everything is working OK" trip. This was our latest one:

Up and down and up and down, sometimes on the wing engine to get it warmed up and sometimes at WOT (Wide open throttle). At least it was a nice day even if the scenery got a bit repetitive.

The big wash off afterwards was frustrating, lots of black streaks that didn't want to go. It is that time of the year. We didn't put the bimini cover on and the flybridge cushions as the weather forecast for the weekend was a touch blowy:

and some snow was in the offing too. So, the forecabin continued to act as a floating shed.

Despite the windy weather and sore throats and coughs that we seem to have picked up, we did venture out though. Steve the waterbus man had a job taking a load of rugby fans from Pier 64, the posh marina restaurant, up to the stadium in Cardiff for the international game against France. We had volunteered as crew. Luckily the folks were not tanked up, just happy and looking forward to the game. Mind you, getting tanked up at Pier 64 prices would probably wipe the smile off anyone's face.

Heading up the the city:

Certainly the best way to get to the game.

Having survived the earlier "beast from the east" and storm Emily, another couple of days of snow were just what we needed:

Not as deep or as cold this time though. Once it melted away, the RIB outboard had some fettling. Time for new spark plugs and a new water pump impeller. The old one was very "set" when removed and could not have been pumping very efficiently. For the non outboard people, you have to pull the lower unit off the engine to get at the pump. The engine looks a little strange then:

and makes passing folks do a double take. The lower unit itself looks a little lost:

All this activity. We clearly deserved a small gin afterwards - pity we had a large one of course.