Wednesday 3 April 2019

Another early start but this time just to pack up and leave the hotel, carry our remaining stuff to the boatyard, and be ready to wait for things to start happening.

Great progress today on several of the items that have been ongoing issues.  We have got close to a resolution of the longstanding problem with our AIS system, by trying various replacement antennas, and seeing substantial improvements from these. We have also had the main fridge “re-gassed”, and hopefully this will now work much better than it did for the latter part of last year.  Over the last few days this had required speaking to the boatyard, the chandlery, the fridge manufacturers in Italy, and their agent in Spain. We have managed to hopefully solve the issue without having to resort to the most expensive options.  The engineer said that the coolant gas pressure was at a very small fraction of what it should have been.

While all this was happening, the boatyard launched the boat that was blocking us in and then came back to lift Equinox.  The last bits of antifouling are painted on while the boat is actually in the slings of the hoist, and then the whole crane contraption carries the boat to the launching dock.  Once we were afloat there were rapid checks to ensure no leaks from the new fittings, and then we fired up the engine and moved to our new home, back close to where we were at the end of last year.

We have a mass of cleaning to do, as there is a thick layer of dust from the boatyard everywhere.  This will probably take us several days, but it will be great to be back based on board again. We will also have to relearn how everything works, we seem to have forgotten a lot over the winter but I am sure it will come back quickly enough. There are systems to recommission, for example there are the water tanks to purify, and so on.  We also have to find various bits of vital equipment that we packed away so carefully at the end of last year.  Where are the duvets, duvet covers, the deck-shower fitting, the hose, spare batteries, the alcohol,……?

Distance covered today	0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	0	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	0	nautical miles
Steve (and Tricia)