Racing To Catch The Tide

It's a bit muddy out at Mill Rythe where Hayling Yacht Company is so with a deep fin keel we need a spring tide to be able to get out into the main channel. The next full moon is on Thursday the 25th so the following weekend is ideal to get Lively Levante over to Chichester; the high tide is 5 metres at 1pm, perfect!
The only difficulty is that there is still rather a lot to do before we can get her into the water and seaworthy. I've managed to finish off the electrics and electronics, so we have an echo sounder now which is highly desirable. The instruments all worked immediately on switch on, the NMEA 2000 bus is fantastic compared with all the faffing about that was needed to make the earlier systems work. The yard need to finish off the installation of the cooker,

install the anchor winch and re-spray the stern; good job the weather forecast is for dry conditions so this should be complete in the next couple of days.
The main priority though is to crane the engine back in together with the mast. The engine should be straightforward as all the ancillaries are there, it's just a matter of shiming up the engine mounts to get the shaft alignment right so that the SureSeal will do it's job and keep the water out. The Mast is more problematic with several key parts we still need that could delay hoisting it. The first problem was the furlex, which was in short supply; fortunately some prompt intervention by Richard, who runs HYC, in the form a sprint over to Hamble, seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully all other bits and pieces needed, in particular  the mast coat, the kicker and the highfield lever for the inner stay will appear whilst the mast is being dressed over the net couple of days. A brief meeting with Barry the rigger and Paul the shipwright the previous week turned out to be invaluable in planning what's needed to set the mast up; it was only then that we realised how much work was needed to fit the collar to the deck that made this mast different (but much better) than the original. It's all nail biting stuff but we're optimistic that the she will be in the water by the end of the week.

The new floor and a couple of coats of varnish has transformed the interior from a building

site into something altogether more civilised.   II'm really pleased we did take the floor out and refurbish it as that was the only way it was going to become really solid again. There's no dodgy give now when you stand on it and it looks really smart and appropriate for her age, shiny but with a few imperfections to give the "patina of age". I'm equally pleased with the varnish work which has now sealed the woodwork and put an end to all that dust from the sanding. The two pot varnish has been a great success as it meant that it was possible to put four coats on over the weekend. The saloon is now starting to look warm and inviting; hopefully the surface will be really hard wearing too. The only disappointment was the main bulkhead where some marks are left from the various bits and pieces that had been tacked onto it over the years. We'd sanded it as far as we dared go but there is a limit, we didn't want to go through the veneer, so we'll just have to find something to fit on it and cover it up!