Today could be the Day

Here is the engine, looking very green in CB marine house colours. They have painted everything!

The news from the boatyard is that it could be running today. We will then need to give it a fifty hour running in cruise to shake it down, as they say, and then come back for an oil change.

It will be good to hear the heart of the boat throbbing again.

Al dressed up- nowhere to go

We are a very sad crew at the moment.

Tooley's mechanic worked on our boat until almost eight o'clock last night to clear faults that prevented us getting away.

We came out of the dock and the boat looks superb. However, the remainder of the day was not so good. "We couldn't have written a script for this" I quipped. But by the time the Tooley's man had finished all we caould do was get Kentucky fried chicken and go home to bed. We had no hot water and no energy left.

We saw our friends off back to Germany yesterday lunchtime after a full english special breakfast in Paw Paw. This wonderful resource is just a step from the canal at the bus station and provides a wonderful and reasonably priced breakfast until lunchtime and then a mix and match chinese menu thereafter. Full take away service available. But I digress.. . .

We returned to the boat this lunchtime after Easter Service at church, loaded with provisions for our mini cruise for the remainder of the holiday and invited Granny to come aboard as our newly modified stairs from stern deck would now be manageble by her hips and knees. Auntie janet steered her into the boat and she was thrilled to be aboard properly for the first time. So we expected to take her for a little ride but. . . . the engine would not start.

I have emailed the boatyard and will report on their response.

We look good on the outside. But wthout an engine a boat is dead.

Now the waiting.....

No pictures...the camera gave a message 'that operation cannot be completed' and gave up.

The surveyor did a thorough job. SONFLOWER was duly hit with a chipping hammer outside and inside and declared sound enough to be insurable.

There are some advisory points like rust treatment, four additional anodes to be fitted, engine maintenance, bilge pump reinstatement.

However....the ballast in the boat is aparently unecessary and the counter is about four inches lower in the water than it really should be. This means that the weed hatch standpipe was designed to give four inches more freeboard than it has. This means that there is a potential risk of sinking if the back end of the boat gets full of water and the weed hatch joint seal leaks. The surveyor recommends that an extra four inches are put on the weed hatch or ballast is removed. The latter would mean taking up a lot of the floor as the 'ballast' in her is made up of great big precast concrete kerb stones. These have also kept bilge water back and made the bilge damp. A recipe for corrosion. And there has been some.


The good news is that the surveyor was confident that the boat will last my lifetime.

The painting isn't a waste of money then!

The waiting is for the report.