Back in the Water

After a long drive up to Scotland we arrived at Fairlie Quay Marina at 5 on Sunday. The yard had moved Robinetta in the shed and made a clear run for her to the double doors to let her out tomorrow. After getting the anchor and chain aboard Julian got on with measuring Robinetta for her new handicap rating while I put the things we had left on the cabin top away, and began to wipe down the cabin paint.

Monday morning saw us back at the yard with Julian working on the mast. He had made a new dead eye from cherry wood over the winter, so he needed to fit it and replace the whipping to hold it in place. I kept cleaning, and a loaded a few bits and pieces on board that we would need for the afternoon's trip to Largs.

The yard came and moved Robinetta and Worm outside at 12. It was bitterly cold, with a strong northerly wind, making me appreciate the time in the shed even more!

The mast had not been in the shed, and now it was clear of the others I could see that the varnish really should have had some attention, There was no time to do anything about it though.

The mast went in, and Julian and I spent an hour putting the rigging back together. In theory the yard should have done it, but although they know what they are doing it was really much easier for us since we knew where everything should go. In the process Julian discovered another of the dead-eyes had badly damaged. (I suspect that this was the one I had noticed before and reported needing replacing, since the one Julian took off was not really too bad). No problem, since we had brought back the damaged dead eye, so just substituted it for the really badly damaged one!

All this took time, and Robinetta was due to be lifted in at 1400, but by 1405 we were ready, and the yard came and put her into the slings and took her to the launching bay. We stepped aboard as she was lowered in, and Julian went forward to take a bow line on each side to help keep her straight when the slings were lowered. Meanwhile I had a sudden thought, and went below to check that the through hulls were really closed. Good thing I did, because the water inlet for the toilet was open. That's one that can put a lot of water into the boat though the toilet bowl... I closed it and went back on deck.

As soon as we were low enough that the water inlet for the engine raw water cooling was under water I turned the engine on. It started first time, but I had a nervous couple of minutes waiting for the engine cooling water to appear in the exhaust... The slings dropped still more, and Robinetta was afloat, held in place by the bow lines while the crane moved back and cleared the slings from beneath her. Then the crane man gave the nod, Julian caste off the bow lines, and I put the engine into gear and steered forward. We left Worm ashore at Fairlie, since it was a bit rough to launch her to tow with Robinetta.

We had no depth gauge, and no chartplotter hooked up, so I took no risks with the course, heading out along the line of the dock where deep draft boats come along side, then aiming for the safe water mark at the entrance to Largs Marina where we were going to spend the night and finish our fitting out. Unfortunately this put us into some quite rough water at the end of the dock. We were heading into both wind and tide, so quite slow, but by 1500 we were tied up safely in Largs Marina.

We walked back to Fairlie and picked up the car, then moved more of the gear aboard before spending our first night on Robinetta since last September.