The forecast was poor weather for the planed 2 weeks out of the water, on the 24th of February I phoned Anthony our engineer to ask what he thought, his reply was “go for it, you cant take any notice of these weather men!” So on the 26th Elektra was pulled out at Sailaway, St Anthony for two week to stay their yard trailer, Sailaway needed the trailer again by mid March to move other boats.
With Elektra out Anthony was there as soon as possible to remove Elektra’s old Bukh DV20 engine, we were lucky to have two dry days following each other to get one engine out and the new Yanmar 3YM20 aboard ready for fitting.
We were away over the weekend but I was down there Monday 2nd March washing her freeboard and preping for antifouling, then antifouling on Tuesday. Anthony was also there on Tuesday fitting the engine. Wedensday was heavy rain all day but Thursday came good again and I was able polish the freeboard and paint the bot top line. Anthony was also there finishing the engine fitting, near the end of the day he fired her up for the first time, he had a few eletrical problems to sort which delayed him so by the end of the day he still had a few things to do, so said he would come back on Sarurday.
I had been trying to keep out of Anthony’s way while he was fitting the engine, so it was our turn to fit the davit holders on Friday. But in the morning it was raining again! But it dried out later and we were able to fit the davit holders.
Anthony was there to finish off on Saturday morning and l refitted the hand bilge pump in the afternoon. On Sunday I scrubbed her decks and cockpit, on Monday got our tender (10′ 6″RIB) down from the shed roof, added some air and took with launching trolly to St Anthony, while there arranging for Elektra’s re-launch on Tuesday.
The tide was high enought to get back to Elektra’s winter mooring but by April we would have to wait 7-8 days to get her out again. The weather forecast was still poor for the rest of March, my friend David said I could use his bad weather mooring above the narrows in Carne Creek until his yacht is re-launched (April). David’s drying trot mooring is set up for east wind (chain to east and rope to west) but this winters wind was all from the west so I wanting Elektra to be facing west. So I set one of my winter mooring anchors up to the west as will (just in case the rope mooring parts in the strong winds).
I asked my sailing friend Roger to help move Elektra from St Anthony to Carne creek. After a slight delay getting away because the stern line getting stuck between skeg and rudder we were then able to start engine and motor Elektra though the narrows into Carne Creek and onto the mooring. Once moored up l stopped the engine checked a few things before returning in the dinghy to St Anthony.
Love Sailing 