Bye bye Gosport, hello hard labour weekend

The day finally came when we could break free from Gosport. Mr Toddler was home and doing well so our hospital shuttle service was no longer needed. The biggest challenge initially was escaping from the very cosy berth we had in Haslar (see earlier posts!) Luckily the marina folks were, once more, great. On a nice calm evening, at high tide so there was little stream running, we moved to a simple, accessible, inside hammerhead berth. A couple of days later we had our first "trip" in over 6 weeks, but just to the Hamble river:

Hardly a big event but it felt like it to us and probably to the boat. She was suitably grubby around the waterline thanks to the layup and sun we had enjoyed - the main engine ran around 4 degrees C warmer than normal so we knew that the keel cooler was pretty messy.

Somehow, it seems that a Nordhavn is not a stealth boat. Heading up the Hamble this image was taken of us by a friend of Martin (The owner of N47 Malaspina and the Poxy Frogbus training captain): 

Maybe the photographer thought that Malaspina had been stolen and was being taken to a secret Hamble location? Tricky thing to do on the Hamble as it is rather busy.  We were quite brazen too - topless as you can see (well, bimini coverless really) thinking that there was no reason to refit it since our next move was to get lifted out. We had booked a lift at Universal but they had no pontoon space for us on the night before so we ended up in Swanwick. Hence on the morning of the lift we had a little downriver trip to the Universal hoist bay. The lift crew there were excellent. Very careful indeed:

There were five men guiding her into the lift bay and ensuring that strops were positioned correctly. Then they lifted her most gently:

You can just about see how messy the hull was. However, the pressure wash took all of it off and there was a nice barnacle free copper coating left to admire. The coolers (main engine cooling and hydraulics) were a mass of weed, marine wildlife and grot. Again, most of it came off OK and the rest was beaten into submission by the crew with a scraper and some brick acid.

We had one "moment" this lift out. When the Captain was fettling the rope cutter, the static central part sheared, meaning that instead of having two semi-circular parts that bolted together nicely we had three bits instead which would clearly not stay in place. Maybe the cutter had been busy chopping up a chunky rope and had been subject to some serious stress or maybe the Captain was just ham-fisted again. Who knows bar a metallurgist. No matter what the cause was, it was far from good news as it happened late on a Friday evening. The dealer for Spurs cutters is on the Isle of Wight in Yarmouth. Harold Hayles is one of those long established boatyards that still seems to run as it must have in the 1960s. A Saturday morning phone call to them got the answerphone. Google and their website had no opening hours shown. Our stress levels went up a couple of notches.

Plan B was hatched - asking the local engineering guys who might be able to weld the alloy used in the cutters as a fallback. Plan C involved having no cutter at all. We didn't like plan C much. Unable to progress A or B until Monday we cracked on with the ritual work. Finding suitable anodes for the "kelp cutters" that sit in front of the stabilisers was fun. To get the stud size that had been used by M and G in Guernsey when they fabricated them was tricky unless you had a huge anode. We certainly didn't need nearly a kilo of zinc to protect the little cutter. Eventually we tracked some down and fitted them:

and we know what to get ready for the haul out next year. All the other anodes etc were already on board.

Having finished almost all of the work by Sunday evening, we started the phone calls on Monday morning when the marine industry woke up again. A very helpful lady at Harold Hayles said she would check their stock and call me back. I think their stock control is still on little cards rather than the PC. Over an hour later we chased her and found to our delight that they had an overhaul kit on the shelf. So  a day out was hastily planned. We had been staying with Ann and Martin (you met them earlier when they joined us in Ireland and then again in Scotland for a trip) who live very close to Universal. That had been a life-saver. So the four of us headed to Lymington, went over to Yarmouth as foot passengers on the Wightlink ferry and picked up the much needed part:

We then had a rush of blood moment. Wanting to find somewhere for a late lunch we walked along the rather lovely old railway line path to Freshwater on a rather warm afternoon. Our target was the beautiful Red Lion pub which has a big garden. Here is a stolen picture of it in the quintessentially English setting next to the church:

Even though the website said they were serving until 3pm, the reality was otherwise. "No, we don't serve food on a Monday". You can have a drink and crisps though. The crew was, by now, in need of calories so she set off down the hill into Freshwater at a cracking pace to get to the tea room in the local garden centre before it shut. The rest of us trailed along after her.

The trip back was pretty uneventful expect that Ann said "I thought this Ferry left at 5 past". It did, we were nearly back in Lymington but as it was so smooth and calm she hadn't noticed we were moving.... 

The new cutter parts were refitted that evening just to ensure all was well and, luckily, it was:

A little more fettling eg lubricating the seacocks, making sure the log paddle wheel was free after it had been antifouled etc and we were ready for relaunch:

One anode being reused (just before the surface got cleaned off) and a stabiliser "at ease" rather than being pinned in the fore and aft position:

We were tired but ready for life afloat. The hoist crew were, once again, very careful and gentle with the boat:

but our personal stress levels are always high until we see this:

We happily motored off, again no space in Universal so we had a night booked in Swanwick just up river. All in all a busy but productive time. Boat cleaned up, antifouled where needed, main engine coolant changed, new anodes where needed, coolers all sparkly, seacocks greased, rope cutter cleaned and repaired, lower area of the hull polished and the stainless steel rubbing band cleaned up too. Oh, forgot to mention the sore shoulders and arms. 

This boat ownership thing is pure fun,

Poxy Frogbus vs Boeing update

We posed a question in the last blog post for you. Well so far no real feedback on the burning question of which is better and which captain looks the best. Robert offered this:

Apropos the Poxy FrogBus vs Boeing:

Sorry to be a philistine - but it's a plane innit? Wot?

He is a yottie so should be forgiven (perhaps). We are still open for suggestions via the comments function! However Captain Martin did offer an explanation as to the dubious positioning of his hands in the Poxy Frogbus image. He claims he was holding his hat. Indeed.