Well after all the work we have done so far and past years dreaming of doing our first shakedown, we have done it and are very pleased with how it went. We still now have a lot of work to be done in Durban but at least the boat is sailable.
After organising a mooring, which were very pleased with, we got quite comfortable and started planning all the work to be done. We invited people to supply quotes on sun covers for the boat, sail repairs and stainless steel to be done. Peter our friend, started planning his work which was to replace all the hydraulic steering copper tubing with new hydraulic hose, new gas lines, new hot water geyser installation, new spinnacker track on mast and a few other odds and sods.
I returned to work and 3 weeks later we were back on the boat and progress had been slow so we could not leave for Richards Bay until all work was complete. I chased up the sun covers and sail repairs, which were promised to be completed and were still outstanding. Hydraulics & Gas lines were all installed and complete. We removed the starter motor and sent in for servicing, checked the solenoid. We also installed a new alternator because we were battling to keep the batteries charged with our existing system with the fridge running. Well while we were there we completed a lot of other jobs on the list, but the covers were holding us up from sailing back to Richards Bay, so we eventually had to decide to leave the boat in Durban for another 4 weeks while I returned to work.