At last! On Tuesday 10 June, we finally got afloat. For Sarah 7 weeks and 5 days on the hard was well long enough.
We have done a lot of work. Put nearly everything we possess back on board. Replaced the fridge pump (twice, as the first substitute was too noisy), put all the standing rigging back on. Replaced the cutlass bearing, put in a new oven and associated galley remodelling, new anodes, antifouled. All that boat stuff. It is an old definition of cruising that it consists of fixing your boat in exotic places. Well, Port Napoleon isn't exotic, but you get the idea.
There'll be another post on the cooker when it's finally connected. (The gas man promises he cometh this afternoon!) But note the smart new red sail cover on the main boom. This encloses our very nice new sail from Lee Sails in Hong Kong. Of course we haven't sailed with it yet, just hoisted it to check it fits, which it does.
The sail itself looks great. Sadly the stak-a-pak is too small. We have emailed Lee Sails and await their comments (and preferably replacement). In the meantime, we will put the old one back on. Again, we will post more on this: the basic story is that we had seen Lee Sails on another boat (Magic Marlin of Jersey, moored next to us at Portimao a year ago), and liked the quality. The price was less than half of European competition, given quotes we obtained both in France and the UK. That was about 1000 euros difference! And apart from our sail-pack problem, it's lovely and has been an easy process.
We are glad we got in on Tuesday as the mistral returned on Thursday. Hence all the springs on the lines, taking the snatch out of the way RG moves in the stronger gusts. Although they creak a bit, they make life aboard much more comfortable.
It is fantastic to be back in the water.