On the hard at Dockland 5 Marina, Whangarei
Wind: E F2 slight breeze
Weather: mostly sunny, warm

It has been a very productive week though nothing worth photographing at this stage. I finished cutting out the rusty bits of metal and cutting new plates to weld in their place. The welding is scheduled for tomorrow and, with luck, by the end of the day Sylph will be ready to paint and to start making ready for sea again. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is less than ideal, with rain expected during the day, but Lee, the welder, reckons we can manage with some tarps to provide shelter.

I have also been able to start on other jobs on my to-do list this week and today I finished overhauling the heads (you may recall that the discharge hose was completely blocked). All the pipework has been replaced with new hose, the manual pump has been overhauled, as has the seacock. It was a messy and difficult job which I am very glad to have behind me. I last overhauled the heads in 2020, so I figure I need to add this job to my planned maintenance schedule on a five yearly interval.

Next week, if the welding all goes well, I will start painting the renewed metal and start on the remaining 'other jobs' on my list, the most important of which is overhauling the anchor windlass, which had started running less than smoothly over the last couple of months.

It will be a crucial day tomorrow in terms of remaining on schedule for completing this refit (I had allowed about a month). Fingers crossed …

All is well.