Splish, splash, splosh!
And no, I am not talking about my friend Mark who decided to test out the wetness of the marina recently. As you can see from the picture, Bandicoot is finally afloat again (and for the first time carrying that name). The weekend following the Easter break was busy getting things ready to put her back in the water and, at the last minute things started to come together. At the weekend we did some odd jobs and, most importantly, with the assistance of Mark the new transducer and depth sounder was fitted.
On the Monday the engineer who had rebuilt the outdrive for us put the drive leg back on and I was then able to get on and anti-foul it on the Monday afternoon. She was now ready to go back in the water and a lift was booked for the Wednesday at 0900hrs. The one potential fly in the ointment was the missing after cooler bung on order for over 6 weeks from the Volvo dealer. Taking no chances I ordered one from well known marine suppliers Keypart which arrived Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning as I went on board to secure things for the lift and check everything over ahead of going back in I discovered the after cooler bung was already fitted. An engineer from the Volvo dealership had fitted it for me the previous afternoon.
So, in she went (after a long ride on a tractor and trailer) and the first good news was that she didn’t sink. The second bit of good news was that, despite not having run in 7 months the engine struck up instantly and sounded as smooth as ever. The new sounder fired up but didn’t like the slipway, however it quickly cleared as soon as we started to move, painting a nice profile on the screen, thus providing a third bit of good news. And the fourth bit came as I backed her out of the slipway and forward gear engaged with a satisfying clunk. We were on our way.
In fact Wednesday continued to go well as we stopped off at Freshwater Cruisers and had the 8 month overdue pump out of the toilet tank finally done and later in the afternoon I fitted and sealed two brand new roof vents which will hopefully be the end of our leaks! And it doesn’t end there - yesterday saw the horn working again, new wiper arms and blades fitted and the wiper sweeps altered (corrected), refitting of the manual bilge system, satisfactory tests on the operation of all water, toilet and drainage systems, some light fittings upgraded and a previously blocked vent in the heads re-instated.
So, all-in-all, progress is being made, albeit slow in some areas.