Locked down in Wales - but having fun, sort of

We continued to run a hospital and kennel operation. Izzy had settled in well as usual, taken over her favourite cushions and anything else that she liked on the basis of  "I look very cute so I can get away with it":

She is so right.

Meanwhile we tried to speed up the patient's recovery with home-made raspberry and white chocolate scones, washed down with prosecco:

We have no idea how that would help her toe heal after the operation but she seemed convinced so we went along with it.

On Sunday, we braved the rather busy Cardiff Bay to warm up the engines and electronics. The local sailing club was having its regular dinghy races and had managed to place the race markers such that the widest and deepest part of the bay was a no-go zone. About a quarter of the bay was available for the likes of us so you can see the bunched up tracks in the northern area as we pottered up and down:  

At least it gave the systems a work out and revealed that the cameras were not all working properly. Well, they might be but since the upgrade to the Furuno TZT2 software in the spring, only two of them want to display a picture on the TZT2 controlled monitors. The time might have come to replace the old stuff with modern IP cameras. Oh good. 

Returning to the marina we had the simple enough job of doing a main engine oil and filter change so that the big Lugger has nice clean oil in it for the "season of little use". Another Covid lockdown might make it the "season of no use at all". We fervently hope not but the infection numbers suggest otherwise.

Another dentist appointment had been booked so we used this to return the now recoverng (albeit slowly despite the food and alcohol fest she had been enjoying) Anne to her home, have a nice little plate added to the captain's gum ready for the "new tooth" impression and catch up with the intrepid Captain Rae who has featured in here many times before. He had just brought his Nordhavn 47 back to the UK from Portugal and as seems to be customary, had a bit of a pasting on the way from the weather.  We also collected a new pulley for our new (or it was when we bought it!) domestic battery bank alternator. This had taken just about a year to source - good job there was no rush for it as the swap is pure preventative maintenance....

Coming back to a life afloat again was nice. Only now with a little furry dog in tow as her owner cannot walk her for several days. Life will not be the same on our boat for quite a while and the captain will certainly not be in command: