It's been 18 months since Flirtie last had a fresh coat of antifoul and her seacocks and anodes checked.

Having booked our lift-out with Portimao marina a few months ago, we subsequently visited the boat yard to check our booking, look at the hard standing, cradles and facilities available. We walked away feeling confident that all was in order.

Unfortunately just 48 hours before our lift out we received a phone call to advise us that they didn't have any cradles available for two to three weeks (when we're back in the UK)!

We were beginning to think that we would be leaving Flirtie in the marina whilst we returned home - not really an issue, however we really wanted her lifted to allow us to take a look at her seacocks and hull just in case we need to buy anything whilst back home.

Thanks to our liveaboard neighbour Mike, he suggested an alternative boatyard 'Rosa Cabral & Soares Lda' located just around the corner in Parchal. Mike spoke highly of the yard having used their services before and kindly offered to take us to meet the Portuguese owner to see if he could accommodate us at what was now very short notice. Whilst there we would have the opportunity to check the boatyard and facilities - excellent on all counts!

With our lack of Portuguese and their lack of English we wondered if we were going to have an issue with communication but with a few gesticulating arms and a few nods we managed to get across that we wanted a lift-out and that a cradle was required. No problem and we were booked in for 3pm.

We arrived at the haul-out area promptly only to find that the crane was currently occupied and was moving another boat into the yard. With no waiting pontoon available we ended up circling around for a quite a while. Eventually the crane returned and we were asked to reverse into the slings, a manoeuvre that we've never done before. It would have been very interesting if there was any cross wind but thankfully with little wind and some slick manoeuvres using wheel and both engine controls we reversed in pretty well.

The slings tightened and we began to be lifted out of the water. The driver then asked us to dismantle the wind turbine as we couldn't be lifted high enough to clear the kirb. This took us by surprise but thankfully the wind turbine frame was easy to unbolt and collapse into the cockpit.

Once clear of the water, it wasn't long before we were climbing down the ladder and walking behind Flirtie as she made her way down the road and into the boatyard.

First impressions of her hull: surprisingly clean with no mussels, oysters or vegetation to mention, just slime. Antifouling should be easy this year - only one hull instead of two!

Total distance this season: 1318.29 miles