Finding the duck still brooding last week was depressing, but the eggs had to have hatched by today... I headed down the pontoon dreading what I would find. Luckily the only remnants of the duck's presence was a mass of down. No eggs, dead ducklings, or messy remnants of her presence.
It looks as though the scare I gave the duck yesterday has inspired her to sit tight and begin to brood. I don't have the heart to dislodge her, and with a brood time of 28 days Robinetta will be getting a late start to the season.
Since we live 35 miles from Tollesbury I have been unable to visit Robinetta during lockdown, even though the Marina stayed open. The marina have been keeping an eye on her, and an OGA friend has been walking past her on a regular basis, so I was not worried, but as soon as we were allowed to travel I headed to see her.
I did not get a chance to look inside though, since as I went to the stern to start taking off the cockpit cover a duck flew out from under it. There, nestled between the pin rail and the main sheet horse, were 4 eggs. The duck did not fly far, and I headed to the marina office to find out if there was a policy on what to do in this situation.
The harbour master said it was up to me what to do, and I had a chat with a local who offered to contact a local wildlife enthusiast who might take the eggs off the boat to hatch them this evening. I will go back in the morning, and if the eggs have gone I will be happy. Apparently a normal clutch for Mallards is about 12 eggs, so this is a partially laid clutch and the duck can start again elsewhere.
I got all the covers on Robinetta the day before the latest lock down started, and I left a small low wattage oil filled radiator on her, set to its lowest settings. This is the first time I have tried such a thing, and I was not sure how useful it would be.
I went aboard for the first time yesterday, when the air temperature was only 2C and there had been a day and a half of fog. She certainly did not feel in any way warm, but there was minimal condensation in the cabin. In other good news she has finished obviously taking up.
Now we just need to do something about the engine...
The time finally came to get Robinetta back into her natural element. She was booked to go in on Friday, then I got a phonecall..... Friday was off due to bad weather, but there was a better chance on Saturday.
Saturday came, she was lifted off the cradle and into the slings after the rain turned into drizzle. Julian cleaned off the patches where the cradle had been, then dried them with an old tea-towel so I could slap some antifoul on and Robinetta was ready for salt water again.
She went into the water an hour before high tide, and rested in the slings while we checked the bilges. The bad news was that for the first time since we have owned her she started taking up. Water was trickling in at bow and stern, but only on the side that had been facing the sun while she was out of the water. It was nothing that the automatic bilge pump could not cope with, so it was tide to turn the engine on.
The starter motor worked fine, but the engine showed no signs of turning over no mater what we did. Barry, our diesel engineer was passing and came to have a look. He recommended a shot of ether, then once the engine was moving giving it a good hard run to thoroughly warm it up and let the cylinders reset themselves. Unfortunately no one around had any ether..... We tried one last time, and this time not even the started motor showed any signs of life.
In the end the marina work boat came round and towed us to our temporary berth there. I wanted Robinetta surrounded by water rather than being in a mud berth until she stopped taking up, and there are still plenty of things to do before she is ready to sail again.
When I left her on Saturday the bilge pump was going 2 minutes in every 15, but today (Monday) it was 2 minutes every hour. The trickle had become a seep, but water is still coming in. Hopefully she will get drier soon.
I have not been good at updating the blog recently. This does not mean that nothing has been happening!
I was told when I renewed the insurance for this year that I would need a survey before they would insure me for 2021. This was a much easier process that when Robinetta was wintering at Cairnbarn on the Crinan canal!
Luckily there was nothing major picked up on the survey, although it did find that the trim on the stern quarters was rotten. It was easy to remove, and will just mean a small repair.
I got advice on what to do
with the hair line cracks that were opening up due to the wood drying
out. These would close up when she went back in the water, but they
needed something to stop the water tricking in too fast during the
taking up process. The surveyor’s solution was linseed putty, mixed
with linseed oil and a little metallic primer, until it was as sloppy
as possible and still stay in the cracks. As the wood swells this
will easily be squeezed out, and in the meantime the dry wood will
absorb the oil. Painting linseed oil onto the hull during
construction was common practice in the days when all boats were made
of wood. We will be painting over the filled cracks, so time will
tell if this treatment is a good idea appearance wise!
Alex has been in charge of painting the hull, as I have been suffering from skin problems on my hands that started with following government guidelines on hand washing. Palms that split open when they are flexed are not conducive to wood work or painting, so I have been acting as a chauffeur and overseer. Having only one of us working has slowed things down, but Robinetta is slowly coming back together, and I have my fingers crossed for an October relaunch.
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