Doing Largs, being sociable and a bit of fixing stuff

Being afloat again was pretty wonderful. Scrubbing the grot off the decks that gets ground in during the time ashore and by the hoist crew on relaunch was less amusing but had to be done.

We walked into Largs a couple of times and were intrigued by this place:

It is the least monastery looking monastery we've ever seen. It looks much more like an old "down on its' luck" hotel building. It is home to some nuns and offers accommodation and a tea room too. Intriguing but not intriguing enough to venture in for coffee.

Largs is an honest old style seaside town and we kind of like it. A nice path along the waterside into town, a good spot for coffee and cake and plenty of interesting visitors wombling about to amuse us. During our stay we had dinner with Lars and Birgit in the marina restaurant and then said bye to them as they headed off to wet their new Rocna anchor again.

We mentioned in an earlier post that it was hard to get a berth there around the lift out. That was because of the "Fifers" regatta going on. The marina was gently filling up with loads of old timber yachts that had been fettled to within an inch of perfection:

What else occupied and amused us? Well, we had a visit from Neil (the owner of Iolair, the berth we were using) and his better half Sarah. They brought along Barney, known as Barney bin Laden. He looks such an innocuous chap:

and indeed was very happy to enjoy lots of cuddles, attention and took great delight in trashing one of Izzy's old toys when on board. We went to the restaurant in the marina, Scotts, for an early supper and Barney was fine until a black dog walked past our table. He was off, a snarling ball of aggression who clearly hadn't figured out that the object of his loathing was a Rottweiler. Luckily a very docile one as the grip on his lead wasn't enough to stop him launching himself across the restaurant to get a grip on the interloper. Neil and Sarah retrieved him and he was as good as gold again, totally ignoring that dog when it walked past on the way out. We see how he got his name.

As the weather was dry(ish) we used the bikes quite a lot for trips into Largs, some shopping and a venture south to Fairlie and then up to Kelburn Castle, only to raid the tea shop though. The Bikemap app suggested a route that avoided the main road. Well, it avoided all roads it seemed and the gravel track ended up at a locked gate. Perhaps they do that to make you pay for the full version of the app? We had to return to the road. Good job we have the G line Brompton bikes that are amazingly capable off road. We would have been carrying the original 16 inch wheel ones that we had before. Interesting place though, have a look at Kelburn weblink for some images of the place and the strangely decorated part of the castle.

Maintenance News:

The misbehaving stern thruster was irritating. It made a nice scream when operated and as it was straight after the relaunch, the guess was trapped air in the tunnel that it runs in. There is a vent pipe with a little valve setup to allow the trapped air to escape but perhaps that was blocked? So, we took the pipe off the bottom of the valve and witnessed one huge burp:

Re-assembled and the thruster tested, all was well. The stern thruster seems to be human-like, way happier after a good burp. We need to take that valve apart sometime to see why it is jammed or just replace it with a ball valve. The pipe finally vents at the top of the transom.

Troon to Largs and getting lifted

 We enjoyed some truly wonderful weather in Troon. Lovely sunsets:

and warm but not hot days, unlike the temperatures being endured on the south coast. We dug out the folding bikes and went north to Irvine a couple of times. The cycle track goes through a very lovely nature reserve and their "clear up after your dog" notice amused and pleased us:

Some food shopping was completed and a good lunch out at GRO Coffee sitting in their garden area. The place is amazingly popular. Big weekend queues, Have a look at their website to get a feel for the place.

We also cycled the other way, down to Prestwick along another nice cycle track. That passes the end of the rather quiet runway at the airport - we did spot one plane taking off, it was a little Cessna though.

We did wonder why there are so many good cycle tracks considering what the weather is like most of the time. Then we just decided to be happy that they existed and take advantage of them. Prestwick has an Aldi store which we needed to visit, to supplement the various trips to Morrisons in Troon that we'd made. Tonic water is a very important stock item on board and we needed to top up before we start hosting visitors.

It had been tricky to get a berth in Largs before the booked lift thanks to various yacht races being based there. However, fortune smiled on us. Iolair, owed by Neil was on the hardstanding and her relaunch was delayed. Neil spoke to the manager at Largs and suddenly we had a berth to use. Result.

The trip up to Largs was a nice sheltered one as the wind was from the east. This is how Vessel Finder viewed it:

and here is how the new and certainly not improved Marine Traffic site sees it:

 

You get to pass the strangely small Portencross castle which started construction in the 1300s:

and the being decommissioned Hunterston nuclear power station site:

which was built just a little bit later.

As the day was sunny enough, we dug out the bikes, cycled into Largs and along the sea front where we admired the local swans and their two cygnets:

Raiding Morrisons for supplies was the real aim, as we knew that the following day we would be a bit busy.

Naturally, lift out day was very windy. Blowing straight down the fairway towards the hoist dock. As they wanted the boat to be stern into the dock, we had to spin around and back onto the little run of waiting pontoon with the wind determined to stop us. Yup, it gusted to 35 knots just as we were turning through 180 degrees. The wind tried hard to stop the bow spinning through it. The office lady said that the lift guys would be waiting to get our lines (handy as berthing port side to is harder, no walkway, no gate, crew has to get off from the bathing platform).  There was no sign of them, having tea probably so the office ladies rushed down to help instead. Very impressive, not really needed but they did make things easier.

Waiting to be lifted, we were in a perfect position to be captured on the marina webcam:

We were lifted and parked next to Neil's Nordhavn 47 which gives a pretty unlikely picture since there are only 4 in the UK:

The boats are old friends of course. When she was named Malaspina they were berthed closely in Penarth and before that, they had a most intimate time when Malaspina was rafted onto us in St Peter Port, Guernsey for a few nights. Now owned by Neil (the Nordy Bits panel meter man) and called Iolair she was also out for fettling. As the weather forecast had gone sick, we worked until 9:15pm on the first day to get well ahead with things that needed dry weather. We were a bit broken afterwards. 

Cleaned up and coated with Crystal Prop, the stern gear looked better:

and the keel cooler too:

We managed the work a day faster than expected , enjoyed some social time with Neil and then with Lars and Birgit who arrived in their boat, a very shiny Azimut. We celebrated seeing them and finishing our annual boat maintenance torture with something fizzy:

Luckily we could pull the relaunch forward by a day, it feels so much better when the boat is in the water rather than high and dry at a strange angle. Relaunch time:

We motored around to Iolair's berth, which Lars and Birgit had just vacated. They got some pictures of us being splashed and on the way around:

Yes, it was a grey day, just not quite as blowy as during the lift out. Annoyingly, the stern thruster was unhappy and just made unhappy noises. No thrust at all. Something to fix after spending the rest of the launch day chilling a bit and then washing off all the grit and grime from the time ashore.

Maintenance news:

Pretty normal stuff. Big clean up of the underwater gear, antifoul the through hull fittings, the shoe under the rudder, the thruster props and the log impeller. Remove and clean the rope cutter, replace the anodes as required, clean the keel cooler and the hydraulic fluid cooler. Coat the props, wing engine shaft and P-bracket with Crystal prop. Drink lots of tea, make groaning noises when bending down, lugging blocks of timber to sit on etc. Grease the folding wing prop to death until it would fold under gravity alone. Shame that will not last for long but... Grease the seacocks. Go double check everything especially the tightness of the rope cutter fittings after putting it back on.

If only it happened as quickly as you can read it.