After a few days, the yard was ready to receive us and the weather to get up the river was ideal, so on the 14th Oct we motored gingerly into the mouth of the river. We had also been warned about the flotsam floating down stream. This consisted of very large tree trunks, oil drums and lots of other rubbish being taken downstream by the current. Luckily there had not been a heavy downpour of rain recently, so the flotsam was avoidable. We anchored on the other side of the river to the boatyard for one night. On shore was a nature reserve, so we were entertained by swans, various types of birds and apparently wild boars wander down to the river bank, but we didn’t see any.

The next day we were expecting to be hoisted out at 1400. But at 0900 we were asked to come into the lift area. That was when the fun started. The owner of the boatyard had phoned us when we got to the anchorage to ask us how tall our wind vane was from the water line. When we told him he said that it would have to be removed because we needed to come into the lift stern first (usually we are lifted bows first). Having taken off the blades he said that this was still not low enough and the support would have to come down. This was not possible unless we took a hacksaw to it, something we were not prepared to do, we had enough jobs on the job list already and a new wind vane support was not about to be another job. At this point we were thinking we were going to have to find somewhere else at very short notice to haul out. Eventually he said we would have to go in bows first, but because his lift was small the forestay, inner stay and baby stay would have come off and be lead back to the mast. This left the mast only supported by the shrouds and because it is a keel stepped mast, the deck. So we slackened off the back stay, and then removed the other stays and at last he said he could lift us out. It was a bit nerve racking seeing the mast wobble about not having much support, but he took it very gently and Muskie made it to shore in one piece with the mast still upright. 

Now, the website of this “marina” said it was a “full service marina” and the reason we chose it was so that we could get the engine out and do a badly needed refit on it with the help of a local engineer who came highly recommended to us. However, it was abundantly clear when we arrived that this was a very small boat yard, packed with boats that were not even a fender width apart, making even washing and polishing the topsides very difficult if not impossible. Thank goodness the copper coat had done its magic and after a quick pressure wash the hull was lovely and clean and of course not needing any antifouling. However, there was no way a crane could be put alongside to get the engine out. All our plans for a big refit were suddenly dashed. Even the facilities were very basic. There was one “workman’s” toilet in an out building and one very shabby shower off to the side of the office. No washing machine and the nearest laundry was about 3 miles away. The local town appeared to be closed up for the winter except for the supermarket, so there were no shops to buy the things we needed to get our extensive jobs list done. The good news at least was that there was a very good bus service into Pisa and the bus stop was right outside the boat yard.

So having come out of the water early to get the engine refit completed, we were now faced with 3 weeks in a boatyard struggling to purchase even the basic’s to work on our job list. So, with computers up and running, we found an online chandler called SVB and good old Amazon (Italy) that also would deliver to the yard, so we started ordering what we needed.

The engineers that were going to do the refit on the engine visited, and we started planning the refit for next year in a different marina as they were still keen to help us with it but just not in this boatyard.

So with some extra time on shore we will now visit Pisa and possibly Florence, if it will stop raining.

Not a good sign. Unmarked wreck in the river Arno

Forestay and inner forestay removed for lift out

Lifted at last

The new sail bag for the storm sail so we can have it on deck ready to go instead of it being buried in the forepeak locker, useless when you need it in a hurry. If this year is anything to go by, we will need it next year.