Splash!
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 24 Nov 2009 14:09
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With help from the boatyard we are just about ready.
The original date was 23rd November, but it's the 24th, so we've slipped by a
day. Not too bad considering we have 3 different lots of antifouling paint on
the bottom. For those technical, we changed from Blakes to International and put
a barrier coat of primer on once the old paint had been rubbed down (they dry
sand it here). We have self polishing antifouling (blue) underneath and
hard antifouling (blue) on the waterline down to about 18 inches (so
we can scrub it if we need to). We have also painted over our white GRP line on
the waterline with a white hard antifouling, With this and a hull polish, she
looks good and ready to go again.
We had hoped for a good day too, but it was not to be.
November 24th and the day started grey and wet and continued very wet most of
the day (the wettest day we've had for weeks). We were 'splashed' as they
call launching here, at about 8.30 am. The weather reminded us of England
- except that it was November and the temperature was about 25 degrees
Celsius!
 Almost ready to go - looking at the propeller, the
final job to complete.
 All bright and shiny, ready to be launched the
next day.
 Being loaded on the boat lifter that
takes the boat to the crane - in the rain!
There are several boat yards here. This one, Peakes, is the
biggest and their equipment is more up to date than they used last year at
Hamble Point. The boat lifter's arms are all put in place automatically and all
are well padded. When it moves you would have to run to keep up with it when
they get going. The yard is flat and the main driveways are tarmac'd, so they
shift boats at speed - it's a little frightening at
times!
 Being transferred to the slings of the Travel Lift
(the crane that lifts us into the water)
The travel lift is big - lifting something like 150 tons. It
makes us look small.
 They move some big boats here!
We are now moored in CrewsInn marina and working
hard to get the final set of jobs complete so we can leave during the week
beginning 7th December. We brought a replacement high pressure fuel line for the
generator from the UK (the original leaked) only to find out on Friday that it's
the wrong one and doesn't fit. So it's a rush now to get the correct one from
the States. We hope it won't delay our departure. It will be good to get the
sails back on and prepare for sailing once again.
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