The annual maintenance ritual

After checking that our little extra underwater addition (the rope we had picked up) hadn't done any damage, we got going with the normal routine:

• Cleaning up the hull where the lift strops were and hence the pressure wash didn't remove any growth or slime
• Checking / changing the anodes as needed
• Removing, cleaning up the rope cutter assembly (in a little bath of descaling fluid) and replacing the bearings
• Cleaning and antifouling the thruster props and through hull fittings (the boat is Coppercoated but these areas are not)
• Cleaning the stainless steel on the lower rub rail
• Polishing and sealing the bottom area of the hull, below the rub rail
• Cleaning up the props and wing engine shaft and P bracket

as you can see, a fun activity:

At least it was done sitting down. The end result makes it all seem worthwhile:

What else? Well:

• Making copious amounts of tea
• Cleaning up the keel cooler and hydraulic oil cooler
• Drinking copious amounts of tea
• Greasing the through hull fittings
• Drinking copious amounts of red wine to free off the shoulders
• Drinking copious amounts of tea to rehydrate

We also had a visit from Brian George, the  very nice TRAC stabiliser expert. He pronounced the system to be in rude health and suggested just a filter change. That made the bank account so happy.

The weather was kindish - we started really early each day and then rain stopped play and saved us from physical harm owing to over exertion around mid afternoon. However, come relaunch time the wind really picked up and was on the edge of the "operating window" for the hoist team. Careful prep by the lift team before becoming airbourne:

On the way to the lift bay, a few tons swinging under the hoist in the wind:

and finally back where she belongs. Of course, something had to play up after a few days in the air. When we switched on the LPG panel it didn't fire up.  Please don't let it be the panel which would be a nightmare to remove and replace (and probably wildly expensive too). Multimeter out and it was clear that the feed from the 24v to 12v converter was still working. The cheap to replace bit was OK, things looked grim.

Luckily, a poor connection was found and after remaking it, the system fired up OK. Sometimes things are sent to try us. This time it was more of a tease but not what we needed after a busy day.

For once the boat was not covered in grit and grot from her week ashore. We were put onto some concrete rather than normal gravelly hardstanding which helped. It rained a lot to help wash the stuff out of the cockpit. Also we had nobody bar Brian the stabiliser man doing any work for us so there were fewer folks traipsing in and out of the boat.

It is really nice to be afloat again. Now it is time to plan the next stop.