The perfect bottom

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 18 Apr 2010 19:58
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 16th, 17th and 18th April

Sarah has been drawing all the admiring glances and comments for her sterling work on the underwater section of the hull and it is now all beautifully painted ready for the launch on Tuesday. The locals are particularly impressed and Ali, who is the project manager on the work being done for us by Demir Marine, did take time out to tell me that ?In our culture the men do all the work and the women just make tea and wash up? which was his way of asking me to make him a cuppa!

A lot of the boats that were packed in around us have been launched over the past few days which seemed a good thing at first but then Sarah discovered that we were now in the full glare of the sun and the fresh breeze which makes the paint go off as you try to apply it. The result has been that we have been getting up early and starting work whilst it is still cool and calm.

The decks and rigging are all still pretty caked in sand and salt despite a good wash on the first day. We had to leave all that as we could not be washing the decks and trying to paint underneath at the same time! We plan to give this all a good go as soon as we are afloat again.

Only got to hear about all the excitement in the UK concerning the volcanic ash when we started getting emails from fellow sailors who were unable to get out here to get their boats ready for launch dates this week. Sounds like we were quite lucky to get away when we did.

We are due to launch on Tuesday but there is some doubt now because the Swedish yacht behind us (Jan & Mona Erikssen) has had very poor work done on the hull and so it is all being re-done which has set them back several days and the hoist will not be able to get to us until they have been moved. Not a huge problem for us as the company making and fitting our solar panel gantry are also a bit behind and may be glad of us being onshore for a further day!

The gloom of hearing that Worcester Warriors Rugby are even closer to relegation with Leeds winning at London Irish today was lifted when Jan and Mona invited us on board for drinks and the evening rushed by as they plied us with drink and we exchanged tales.