This was going to be a two part process – Monday evening I was going to get the boat in the water, and then Tuesday move it.
Arriving Monday, I was greeted like this.
WHAT IS IT WITH SNOWFALL AND HAULOUTS AND ME?!
So that obviously wasn’t happening, and my feet were soaked so I didn’t want to hang around. I DID replace the air filter, since it should look like this:
And instead looked like this
Spot the difference.
Tuesday came, and I got up early so I’d have time to drive to fishermans wharf, take the bus from there to the marina and watch my boat be put in. As you can see, the weather was a lot better
It’s a bit nerve wracking watching it be hoisted around :
Once it was in, the boatyard had to do about half an hour of adjusting – the ‘stuffing box’ was adjusted to allow the correct drip rate. While that was happening, I checked the boat to make sure no thru-hulls were leaking – especially the two that I had removed hoses from! I’d double checked they were all closed the day before, but it’s best to make sure.
Sure enough, I heard a worrying sound – a trickle of water! In a panic I checked the thru-hulls and sure enough, water was entering through one of them. Luckily, it turned out that I hadn’t turned the handle on the seacock the entire way, so a trickle was getting through. A forceful push on the handle soon sorted that out. Below you can see the troublesome seacock.
While all that was going on, the captain I had hired turned up – Robert Innes . A very nice chap.
Getting out of the marina was a bit of a tight squeeze, but then we were underway! With a (not so) brief stop at the fuel dock (we had to double-check the fuel with a dipstick since the engine seemed to be super fuel efficient – which turned out to be correct!) it was a fairly easy passage to Victoria. A bit of rolling at one point near discovery island, but luckily I don’t get seasick (I get every other type of motion sickness so I’m not sure why I was spared seasickness, but I’m very thankful)
Below you can see us approaching the fuel dock, and then heading out
Finally, we were there! Docking was a bit tricky since the wind had picked up a little, but we made it!
After almost 2 months, Windchime was finally where she needed to be. And now I can start work on her internal systems.
How cool is that – your OWN boat!! Well done Matt xx