Back to Guernsey

Since the delivery date for the new shaft went back by one week each time the calendar went forward by one, a decision had to be made. Unamused by the Clements engineering folks' inability to confirm a date and the poor / missing communication from the Guernsey folks, a decision to refit the old shaft and then swap to the new one in March was made. We were planning a lift and scrub job then - it will just be a couple of days longer now. We hope.

The brave captain flew back courtesy of Flymaybe once more, on the same knackered 16 year old Blue Islands turboprop. It started life with Air Tahiti and now the poor thing shuttles to and from Southampton every day. Hardly the same sense of glamour! No picture this time as Captain Rae complained about "having to look at that ugly aircraft" in an earlier post. You can blame him for this big boring chunk of text that isn't broken up by a nice purple plane picture.

On arrival, the captain found that the M and G organisation had obviously "back ended" a lot of the work. So much for dropping the boat over during their quiet period! Still, things that had been done were very well done. The new deflectors / cutters for the stabiliser fins:

that were fabricated to replaced the corroded originals. These have an anode on to help them survive longer. The new calorifier with twin coils was in place. A very snug fit and a huge capacity (75 litres) so there should be no complaints form the fourth person to have a shower in the morning about being chilly:

The huge Vetus calorifier had one obvious drawback - a twin coil unit as requested but some muppet had designed it with the connections to one coil at each end of the device. It will be such fun getting to the inboard connections when they decide to leak a bit as they surely will over time:

As you can see from the first picture, there is some plumbing left to do - another example of leaving tasks right up to the wire and typical of marine industry organisation. That one was particularly frustrating as it meant no hot water on board. The captain was given a key to the workshop toilet and shower area. It was lovely. Or something like lovely. Once upon a time. Perhaps.

The ground plate for the radio was removed and renewed. It had degraded badly (very pink) and the bolts fell apart nicely when they were being removed:

Headless indeed and all ready to cause a little leak.

The poor gearbox looked a bit lonely with no coupling and shaft connected:

but the engineer started the work to refit the original. Even when the work is completed, a relaunch in the forecast weather was not practical:

Swinging a heavy Nordhavn in the hoist with 30 mph winds is not fun. With 60 mph ones is just impossible. Even if we found a lull in the wind that fitted with high tide times, we would then have to ride out the coming strong gales in St Peter Port harbour and that is not especially well sheltered.

So, the boat stayed high and dry and a plan for a relaunch on Monday 12th was hatched, around 7:30 am to fit with the tides. The captain enjoyed a nice flight back on bonfire night, watching the various firework displays from above seated in the same little bored ATR aircraft. Even tiny Alderney had bought a few sparklers.