January

January was another busy month on the marina with lots of maintenance etc. We booked a lift out for Belle Helene – Justin had been very worried that the dreaded Osmosis had taken hold following comments from the Croatian engineers in Dubrovnik. “If I were you I’d sell her and get another one” was his parting comment – not very helpful just as we set off for our year on the boat!

Any way the day arrived – there were only three boats booked to be lifted that day yet we were still waiting in the crane gantry at 10 pm; then the hydraulics went on the crane so we agreed to wait until morning. We had loads of visitors that evening – all our friends making sure we were OK! A very large Motor Yacht was being lifted at the same time ‘Lady Eilish’ with a very nice Irish couple on board, Charlie and Eilish and their son Zac. They were leaving the following morning to return to Ireland and very kindly left us their fridge groceries before they left! More on ‘Lady Eilish’ later…

.. eventually the marinieros were ready to lift us, the diver arrived to make sure that the crane strops were in the right place and up she came…

 

The Croatian engineers had supposedly put two coats of antifoul on the hull in July- goodness knows what they had used but it certainly hadn’t worked! The marina staff set about blasting off the grime and growth and we were pleasantly surprised at the result. We had agreed with our NBF engineer Ali, to scrape the hull back to the gel coat and then apply 4 coats of Gel Shield followed by a primer and then two coats of soft antifoul.

Although he only had 15 days to do the work he  set on 5 men within minutes of it being chocked up! He did a brilliant job – she was like a new boat when he had finished with her.

And as for osmosis…. he brought his moisture meter to show us… less than 4% moisture in most of the hull with slightly more near the keel. A fantastic reading for a boat her age. Whew!!!!…

Living on the boat when she is out of the water isn’t very pleasant … no loo, climbing up and down dangerous ladders etc. Anyway we coped well enough and took a mini-break half way through the fortnight to celebrate Justin’s 50th Birthday with friends in Rhodes… check out the next blog post…