In the Water

We launched on Friday and celebrated with bubbles watching the sunset. All went fairly smoothly (well we haven't sunk yet!). Watched the dolphins in the river yesterday and all in all its very nice to be afloat. Heading north in the next couple of days. We will take our time and relax and enjoy ourselves for the next two weeks or so.

Launched!!

Launched Friday on schedule.

Refit Part Four: Out of the shed

On Monday we moved out of the shed! The hull has been painted and 90% of the holes have been drilled in the deck. Whangarei celebrated by two days in a row without rain, a first! (I think we have had one other day without rain- if I’d known how rare this was going to be I’d have paid more attention!) On Tuesday we put the engine and mast back in. The next job is anti-fouling the keel and then with a few minor tasks to go, like re-aligning the engine, we might even be ready to go back in the water and see if she still floats!

Refit Part Three: Fittings and more fittings

Well I had written a piece to go here but I don't seem to have saved it so I'll post the photos anyway! We have got most of the fittings back in, only the pushpit, pulpit, radar mast and some tie downs to go! I started counting fittings but lost count at 70 ( and times that by an average of four bolts or screws!). We have started painting the topsides, we are just doing it by hand as we don't want to pay a fortune for a lovely spray paint to then be worried all the time about scratching it! And since we manoeuvre like a long keeled beamy yacht in marinas built for racing fin keelers the scratching part is inevitable! I won't say when we hope to be in the water for fear of jinxing things!!

Jim replacing fittings Looking a bit more cluttered!

Tori painting the keel