All things move towards their end, of that you can be sure.
Sunday afternoons are perfect for those little bits of maintenance needed to get everything ready for crane in. One of the oars for my tender had a bit of a screw malfunction which was preventing the sheath for the handle fitting snugly, so a judicious bit of turning, adjusting, and finally battering with a hammer saw the problem solved.
I have a little bit of painting left to do on the rudder, but that’ll have to wait until the rain finally stops. Assuming the rain DOES finally stop.
My giant rubber ducky mooring buoy passed his sea-test (in the bathtub) with flying colours. He was deployed at my mooring at Capernaum Point on Sunday. The mud in the harbour is utterly horrendous and really difficult to work with. Hauling chains, attaching shackles and strops, and running link lines while bogged down in a foot of sticky nasty slime is bloody hard work!
Anyway, with the mooring constructed, I fitted the giant rubber ducky and left him sitting sadly in the mud, looking like just another mooring buoy. I dashed off on an errand or five to give the tide a chance to come in as final proof that he was indeed seaworthy and up to the task. I got back to the marina to discover it in a little bit of an uproar as more and more club members caught sight of the little yellow chap bobbing about on the waves. LOLs were generated, chuckles shared, and the world became a happier place.
I do intend to fit a ‘proper’ buoy before crane in, but ducky will still be out there, watching over my little boat and making people smile.
Next job is to get the tender inflated and take a row out to the mooring for a few last checks. I guess the most important check is the seaworthiness of the tender – it’ll be good to know that it’s survived the winter and actually still floats 🙂
Oh – I also serviced the outboard on Sunday. It’s a nice little 4HP Yamaha 4-stroke circa 1998 and it runs like a dream. A lot quieter than many outboards I’ve heard. Need to get it on board and stowed in the locker next weekend. That’ll be an interesting job because it weights a ton and will need to be lugged up the ladder. I’m sure I can convince a passing club member to hand it up to me. Failing that, I’ll sling a line over the boom and haul it up using raw man-grit. Or something.
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