A delayed return from the UK to Sicily meant that we had less than 7 days to complete the last of the critical jobs - bend on the genoa; service the windlass; replace the masthead bulb; commission the watermaker; reprovision; laundry and get everything ship shape. Plenty of time you would think but like with so many boat jobs things didn't go to plan and suddenly we felt the pressure.

A few years ago we had purchased two new watermaker membranes for our Schenker unit however we never fitted them due to circumstances beyond our control. Earlier this year we had replaced the hoses, a few hose fittings that had started to weep and the pressure guage. The only outstanding task was to replace the old membranes, something that we've never done before. We noted that the attached annotated photo showed the membrane flow in a different direction to how it was installed but we followed the instructions anyway being careful not to damage anything. Silicone grease was applied to all the 'o' rings to make the assembly easy and to make a good seal. After connecting all the necessary hoses we were then in a position to start the unit. Not surprisingly it shut down almost immediately. This was expected as we had introduced air into the system. Unfortunately it kept shutting down after repeated attempts. We were beginning to suspect that we had put the membranes in the wrong way so we ended up contacting Jim at Mactra Marine, our UK guru on all things Schenker. Jim provided us with a revised diagram. This showed that the original membrane directions were indeed correct so unfortunately it was necessary for us to repeat the exercise to correct the error. Subsequently it started successfully with no shutdowns.

The next job was to replace the masthead LED which was partically illuminated. Unfortunately the new LED was no different so the issue was elsewhere. We found corrosion in the plug and socket at the base of the mast going through the deck. Fortunately our local chandlers, Vela Latina had an exact replacement which we fitted but the masthead light still wasn't fully illuminated. A multimeter confirmed we had the voltage at the masthead but the problem was within the tricolour itself. There wasn't enough time to source a replacement but we were able to rework the corroded connections using electrical wire, crimps and a couple of spare parts from a broken unit that we had squirrelled away. Proof that absolutely everything should be kept onboard for those "just in case" moments!

Thankfully the remaining jobs were straightforward and went to plan. All of our ducks somehow aligned and we managed to depart the marina on the 30th April when our winter contract ended. We were extremely fortunate with the weather too as it allowed us to gently sail/motorsail to our usual stops along the Sicilian coastline, Portopalo on the south west side and Siracusa on the eastern side where we would wait for a good forecast to take us to Greece.

Total distance this season: 59.43 nautical miles