John arrived in Antigua yesterday and after a long passage through customs and immigration (more than one plane arrived at the same time) and was met by Jason – Neville’s nephew. Neville died at the age of 76 the day after we left Antigua last – very sad as he has a terrific guy and really knew what was going down on the Island. We were at the Cat club by 1600 and had the dinghy inflated, cleaned and in the water complete with outboard by 1800. Adams team off Wild Thing were quick to give a hand and what is normally an awkward job for one went smoothly. Outboard started first pull – which must say something for the service we gave it before leaving in March. We obviously have a minor leak in the dinghy as it had deflated a bit – usually the valves and they all need topping up from time to time. No real food on board so it was off the David’s for a beer and something to eat.

Today the generator has been given a thorough going over. Initially all the sea water strainers were given a birthday then the oil and fuel filters along with an oil change. John had brought a manual oil pressure test kit with him as the oil gauge on the generator was flickering sometimes and with the manual test kit we were able to prove that is was not actually the oil pressure which stayed rock solid at 40 psi regardless of load. So, as we had spares on board the oil pressure switch and oil senders were changed for new items in the hope of eliminating the flicker. It seems to have worked and we can now be reasonably sure that any flicker is the gauge and not the actual oil pressure. The generator seemed much happier after it’s going over but we will continue to test it in preparation for the forthcoming voyage. The two electric bilge pumps were also manually tested today and passed with flying colours. We have a bilge pump monitor which John brought with him and that will be installed when we have time. Its hard to hear the bilge pumps when at sea and it is useful to be able to look at an instrument such as this and see how many times its has operated.

We had forgotten to remove the speed sender before we left last time so that also had to be removed and cleaned. The blank has been inserted for the time being as we will be coming out of the water next week for a clean and a coat of ablative. This has now been fixed for the 5^th and 6^th with the plan being to lift the boat out early on the 5^th – wash it  - allow it to dry and get the paint on before about 1400. We will then let the paint go off over night and put her back in the water the following morning. John is trying to track down Sherman to help for those two days as getting the boat into the dock and lifted is not a one man job. Helen has said we can have an alongside berth when we come out of the dock and that will make rigging the after end and davits a lot simpler. With our stern out away from the quay we should also be able to run up the water maker without too much fear of contamination. Having started at 0600 this morning it was decided enough was enough at 1600 and we made a quick trip up to the supermarket for basic before heading for the shower. Tomorrow we plan to give the main engine a major work over along with the fuel injection pump. If there is time the gearbox and shaft will be next on the list.