Launch at 8am Weds 2 May was booked months ago. We were so close. But yesterday the gremlins arrived and no job went as it normally does. The 2 showstopper are:
1) the engine isn’t pumping diesel through the new filters. The engine is cooled by seawater, so to test run out of the water means filling a bucket with a hose and trying to keep up with the engine drinking it and chucking it out of its exhaust outlet at the back of the boat. John and Mike are pondering this one.
2) One of the seacock on the forward heads (loos) has seized. No amount of WD40 and spanners will shift it. Seacock are how you lock off, open and close the various skin fittings (holes!) in the bottom of the boat that are needed to let water in and out, e.g. to flush toilets. The seacock needs replacing and there isn’t an engineer free to do it. When there is, we may find that it’s corroded into the skin fitting so that will need to be revealed. It would take 24 hrs to dry ☹
There are no free launch slots for weeks, we would have to wait for a cancellation. We tell ourselves we have the rest of our lives to be afloat ….
And we’re getting used to life aboard ashore, aren’t we?