Well - we are ashore in the yard at St. Raphael Marina - again.  Yesterday Dad was walking around the for exercise just before 0800, when the yard manager, Stathis, says "Peter, we have had a cancellation - we lift your boat out now".  15 minutes later we have the boat ready in the travel hoist berth waiting for the yard crew to take the lines - don't think they were expecting us to be quite so ready.  Dino took off the rudder, prop shaft and prop shaft bearing and the prop shaft coupling to the engine - Dad supervised.  Dino then took the shaft and the main coupling off to a steel works to have them checked on a lathe for balance and to make sure they are "True" and not out of alignment.  The inside bearing in the P-Bracket (the bit you can see poking down from the hull near the stern) was well-mangled and will be replaced.  The propellor is OK but Dino recommends that we put the original 2-blade one back on as it is lighter than the super-duper 3-blade Brunton Autoprop and will cause less wear to the P-Bracket bearing.  We have spare bearings for the rudder so, as the old bearings are now showing wear, we will have the spares fitted and hope they last the rest of the time we have the boat.  We are staying at Cosmos Lodge with our friends Ann and John, and have hired a car for a few days so that we can get about and do things - and get to/from Cosmos Lodge.  All being well, we shall be back in the water next week and can then go to Alanya as soon as there is a reasonable weather window - today is a good day to be ashore as it is blowing Force 4-5 here in the marina, which means it is at least Force 6-7 off Akrotiri Peninsula.

Just before lunch got the bad news from Dino - the prop shaft is worn at the inboard end and, because of this, the shaft coupling to the engine is also worn - so we need to get new ones of each - more expense!  The only good news seems to be that Themos, the steel worker that Dinos uses, can fit the work in pretty much immediately.  Themos is the guy who repaired our steering quadrant last week.  Looks like we are ashore for up to another week whilst things get manufactured and then fitted - checked the weather and there does not seem to be any good weather until the end of next week anyway.