It finally looks like we will be on the water this week. A catalogue of unfortunate events at the marina including staff illness and a fire in the offices has put back our plans, but all the major work now complete and Heydays is beginning to look like a boat again. Keels on and bolted in, antifoul done, new electric windlass installed and we have even laid the trunking ready for a heater next autumn before we face the cold Scottish nights. We are sincerely hoping that with new wiring in place and trunking done, we have said goodbye to glass fibre rash up our arms as we try to get access to places where the builders clearly thought otherwise. If I was a boat-builder….!

Routine checks around the engine have thrown up a couple of loose jubilee clips including one which had failed and a badly rounded bleed screw on the high pressure pump. We are glad we spotted these now instead of in the dark in a Force 7 approaching land… Also spotted was a VHF aerial connection at the top of the mast hanging on by a thread.

We will be on the boat (on the water!) on Saturday 28th May (although we have work to do anyone turning up will have a warm welcome and possibly something a little stronger) and hope to have a shakedown sail with the early tide on Sunday. Surely nothing else can go wrong? The plan is to explore the Essex and Suffolk rivers with Yee Tak and Chris for a few days, while gradually heading North. Lowestoft by Sunday 5th June would be good before the push up to Scotland. With reasonable luck with the weather we are aiming for Inverness (or thereabouts) by around 16/17 June. Hopefully we will do this in a series of day sails, although a fair wind may encourage some longer hops. We will endeavour to keep this reasonably up to date and add some pictures along the way in case friends are a) interested and b) would like to join for a leg or two.

Still ashore and progress is slower than we had hoped. However, we have managed to tick off most of the big jobs…as well as adding some more.

Heydays is looking good (despite not having a full complement of keels) and we have even antifouled most of her. We seem to have spent the winter tracing wires and cables in her nether regions but now have instruments where we want them together with plenty of charging sockets.

New seacock fitted should ensure slightly less problematic visits to the heads with attendant instructions to visitors reminiscent of some Mediterranean hotels.

Best of all is an electric windlass which we hope will change the way a crew of 60ish year olds can cruise.