The first few nights sleeping on the boat whilst it was in its cradle were a bit scary to say the least, especially with wind blowing gale force at times, Kevin had to keep reassuring me that the boat would not blow over, it wasn’t until the boat was back in the water that he told me he was also trying to reassure himself.
The facilities at Yacht Haven Quay, were adequate but not what we have been used to at the marina, the ladies shower (there was only one) did not have a light so I had to use the men’s, the door didn’t shut and the shower curtain was see through, so I just prayed that no one came in whilst I was there. So on one of the days when Kevin suggested that as we were going over to the marina we should use the shower facilities there, I did not need any persuading, the sheer bliss of a hot shower, and I mean hot, will never be taken for granted again.
We also took a couple of days off from the chores and spent an afternoon in Mevagissy and a day in Beer, yes it really is the name of a village, both outings were great but if we had to choose which one we would go back to it would have to be Beer. Beer is a quaint little fishing village in Devon with a lot of history, mining lime and smuggling, the disused mines were used for storing the smugglers booty at one stage.
Whilst at the quay we also met another couple named, would you believe it Bev and Kev, they were also working on their boat which was positioned next to hours.
Miss Lilly was lifted back into the water without a hitch, Kevin checked that the new sea cock wasn’t leaking before the lifting straps were removed, if it had been leaking we would have had to be lifted back out otherwise we would have sunk. Kevin confirmed there were no problems and we were on our way back to the marina at long last, but you might be sure something would go wrong, when we tried the bow thruster it made a peculiar noise and didn’t work, this means another lift out to correct it.
As the weather for a change wasn’t too bad once back in the marina Kevin set about installing the new replacement radar, this required him to be hoisted up the mast. Again we encountered a few problems especially when trying to get the new cable down the inside of the mast, it just didn’t seem to want to go, however after a great deal of brute force, and a lot of praying we managed it. The next task was how to get a heavy round object (the radar) up the mast without dropping it, Kevin’s engineering skills came to the fore, and with the radar tide up in all dimensions with cord I hoisted the radar up to him. I stayed at the bottom of the mast awaiting his instructions for passing items of tools up to him, however at one point he tried to kill me by dropping a screwdriver, which landed at my feet. I did get my own back though when he wanted to be lowered down back to the deck, I made him wait until I had taken a few photos of him dangling in the air.
The weather forecast for last night was for torrential rain and gale force storms and we weren’t disappointed, we woke to heavy rain, however we have managed to install the new anchor chain we bought from the chandlery in Beer, and Kevin has reinstalled the inverter now it’s back from the manufacturer following repairs, these jobs too have been achieved between downpours, with Kevin at one point ensconced along with a head torch in one of the holds with the lid propped open so as he didn’t get wet.
With all the delays we do now feel that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully it won’t be long before we start our travels.
