Robinetta came out of the water today, and has had a winter's worth of weed washed off her hull. She is now in the lower yard in a cradle, waiting for her new engine and the other work to be done by the yard. Hopefully this will not take too long, as having a wooden boat out of the water at the height of the summer heat is not a great idea.
No pictures, as I was not there. Having everything done at a distance of over 300 miles is nerve wracking!
It feels like a long time since I did a blog post, but that is because of too many other things going on, not that Robinetta has become unimportant. She is still not sailing, but there are various reasons for that.
The varnish on the mast had crazed horribly since she was relaunched last October, so we have had it taken out. Once we undressed the mast we realised that we needed new back-stays, as the galvanised iron was now rusty (the other stays and shrouds are stainless steel). We took the old ones to TS Rigging in Maldon, who made us some lovely new stainless ones. We have also bought a new peak halyard, as the old rope was not very good quality and kept twisting when it shouldn't. We need to buy a few new blocks and get the rest varnished; we did not touch them when the mast was out in Bristol so it is not surprising they need some TLC. There is a lot of serving to be done as well. Due to lack of time the yard have stripped and will varnish the mast. but I have managed to get the bowsprit looking smarter
One of our friends has taken out the old engine (it will be used for spares). We need to get the engine "compartment" cleaned up and painted before the new engine goes in, but with a leaking stern gland (again) this is impossible without taking Robinetta out of the water. I arranged this with the yard today. They were going to be taking her out to clean the hull and antifoul her anyway, but now she will be out for longer to let the engine area dry out enough to paint. At least this will means that if a new drive shaft is needed there will be no delay while she is hauled out. With any luck the engineer will be fitting the new engine in the third week of July. Fingers crossed!
Julian and I went to Robinetta this weekend with the vague hope that we could get the engine going ourselves. Unfortunately we failed, and the engine would not even turn over on the hand crank. We have come to the conclusion that it would be best to just get a new engine... This has put a damper on our sailing plans for the year as I suspect it will take a while to organise.
The varnish on the mast has also crazed and is peeling in a way that will probably flake off the first time we try to haul up the main sail, so we need it stripped off and redone. All this combined with the fact that we are in the middle of moving house to Scotland, means I am going to be very busy since we hope to sail Robinetta up the East Coast this summer.
The good news is that Julian got a reading from the new depth gauge transducer in the bow that we had fitted last summer, and that the hull has now taken up completely. The weather was also beautiful, and we got to fly our East Coast year flag.
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.
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