Isle of Muck Practice Flight 26 April 2023

 

Heading north towards Whitehead with our refreshed decks and 
cushions on full display. We can feel the new season is coming!

It has been a long winter, but not an idle one.  We have undertaken so many jobs it is hard to remember them all.  Top of the list must be engine servicing.  We contacted Finnings for a quote to service the two engines and were quoted all the parts plus close to £2500 for labour.  This encouraged us to look at what is actually involved in a service, which lead us to decide to undertake the servicing ourselves. 

Over 3 days in early March we serviced both engines and at the end of it we are delighted that we did so.  Not just because we have saved a significant amount of money, but because we also now know the engines much better.  And, apart from one of the impellers, it wasn’t a difficult job. In retrospect even the tricky impeller wasn’t too bad - though there were moments when we would have disputed this at the time!

Engine room looking sparkly clean, and serviced. 

Other jobs we’ve undertaken include:

       New shelves in two cabinets (for food storage)

       Raised the height of the flybridge table - we can now fit our legs under it!

       New carpet in lounge, kitchen and front cabins

       Cleaned and waterproofed the flybridge seating covers

       Engine room floor painted

       Various rust patches in engine room treated and painted 

       A leaking stern passerelle fitting (we actually do not have a passerelle) made watertight 

There were other jobs but they don’t immediately come to mind.  In essence we feel that we have now fixed and repaired most of the problems we inherited with the boat (though there are 2 or 3 inherited painting jobs still to do) and now only have to deal with issues of our own making.  That’s progress!!

Today’s trip to the Isle of Muck was to test our systems and make sure everything was working before we make a long journey planned for May.  We are happy with the outcome (though we identified where a minor coolant leak is on the starboard engine - hopefully an easy fix).

Whitehead looking colourful even on a dull day

Blackhead lighthouse 

The Gobbins cliffs has early numbers of kittiwakes, common guillemots, razorbills and fulmars.

We had a light lunch anchored on the inside of the Isle of Muck, and then motored home in a cold headwind.  Our route:

Next week we lift out to antifoul, replace anodes and polish the hull.  The fun never stops!








































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