The first few weeks

Getting ready for Anti-foul

February - March, 2013

Having taken ownership, and seeing as though she was already out of the water, I took the opportunity to get some initial work done.

The biggest job really was to have the bottom cleaned up and a couple of fresh coats of anti-foul put on. Although also had some of the thru hull valves replaced and ended up replacing the propeller and shaft too. These were jobs I got the shipyard to do for me. In the meantime I made a start with a few little bits & pieces on the interior. Nothing major just things like installing a new stereo, tidying up some wiring, and going through all the compartments to find out exactly what I had acquired with the purchase. There was a lot of stuff poked away in draws, cupboards and the bilges. Some of it quite handy to have, some of it I wasn't so sure about, and some of it was just plain rubbish. Suppose it's like taking over a back yard shed that's had years of accumulation.

Also seeing as though it had been sitting for a while there was a lot of general cleaning up, washing, and re-organising to be done. I managed to do alright with this, but of course being in a shipyard and having contractors coming in to complete their work it was a little bit of a losing battle.

Fresh Paint - Ready to go

Nevertheless, a couple of weeks later and I was ready to get her back into the water and move on board. After having the minor incident on coming into the lifting dock, due to stupidness on part of the hired help, it was comforting to now be on the helm myself and had a smooth departure. It was just a short trip up river from there back to the original marina where I first saw her. I wanted to have time to go over a few more things and get used to be being on board before heading out too far.

Ended up spending another couple of weeks in the marina, which was actually quite a nice spot. Not too busy and had all the amenities at my disposal including a pool. It wasn't the warmest of weather at the time and as far as I could make out I was the only one getting use of the indulgence. There were several others that lived on their boats in the marina, had a good little atmosphere. But for me I wanted to get moving, and so I said my farewells to those I had met and after topping of with fuel set off early one morning.