Thursday morning and we were up early. Have to say the views here in the marina are not exactly what we have become used to over the last months….

Inspecting the rusty, disgusting and smelly anchor chain we really couldn’t face putting it back into the clean anchor locker…. so Richard headed off in the car to Island Water World to purchase our new anchor chain and got a really good deal! We chose to have galvanised chain again rather than stainless steel as the breaking strain wasn’t so good with the stainless and Morphie is a heavy girl at 15 tonnes!

Before he left for the store, Richard had taken the outboard off of dink ready to start the winterisation process…..

I used dink – sans outboard – to complete the stainless cleaning and to do some quick varnish ‘keepers’ under the rail. We then manhandled dink onto the dock so that I could clean him. His bottom was pretty filthy after our time in Spanish Water and the tubes could do with some loving care too….. I realised that I didn’t have enough of the outboard marine cleaner to hand but that our toilet cleaner had almost the same products in it – so decided to give it a try. Wow – dink has never had such a clean bottom….. The Swedish guy opposite us came over and laughed when he realised what I was using – he does the same! And I thought I was being innovative LOL….

Anyway….by the time Richard got back, I was ready to clean Dink’s topsides so we flipped him over and I carried on. Richard finished servicing the outboard and we stored him away in the lazarette. When dink was clean and dry we hoisted him up onto the foredeck using the genoa halyard and secured him under a tarpaulin. After all that….we had an early night after watching the (beautiful!) sunset – although a bit sad to realise that this was our last night sleeping on Morphie this year….

We are not flying directly home to the UK this year as we are having a week’s stopover in Wisconsin to stay with Dan and Ruth from Evensong who have kindly invited us to stay with them.  Very excited about seeing them again.   So we had to think of our US holiday when packing too…..

After bags were stowed in the car, we filled up the water tanks and turned off the fridge and freezer – having disconnected ourselves from the dock facilities.   We then emptied our food stores for use in our apartment later.  Stripped beds and stowed that too….. By now it was 10.30 am and the new anchor chain was delivered with the old one taken away to be donated to the fishermen in Spanish Water. We attached the anchor and stowed it into the locker – and were now ready to go to the final dock of this season’s trip. We reversed off the dock, did a quick turn, and went alongside the berth near the slipway. With Morphie tied up it was time for us to get off….

The boat lift came into the water and Morphie was put into its grip…. the lines were released… and she was slowly lifted out of the water. We were, of course, a bit nervous watching this process – but actually preferred it to the huge travel lift of last year, as it seemed a slower more stable process.

Morphie was jet washed and then moved to the bottom yard in the marina – which is officially the ‘working’ yard. She was chocked up and secured. Phew….stress over for now! We quickly climbed on board, checked all OK, and then left as it was almost 5 pm and we needed to check into our apartment.

We arrived at our apartment and settled in enjoying the air conditioning; unlimited fresh water showers which are open plan behind the wall in the upstairs bedroom; and we unpacked.  I rustled up dinner and we enjoyed a bottle of wine….followed by an early night.

Up early Saturday morning and back to the boat yard. Time to start working on the cabin floors… Here are some ‘before’ pictures….

We cleared all work surfaces and covered what we could from the inevitable dust cloud we were about to create!  Then we spent the whole day rubbing down and sanding …. After a lot of hours of hard work, we cleaned up and applied our first coat of wood sealer. Phew – absolutely shattered!  Richard then took me out to dinner at the restaurant Ginger which is opposite our apartment – lovely asian food – and we had a twist on a tandoori chicken with naan dinner washed down with a great bottle of wine. We also met a nice couple from Tennessee who were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary….. And the band were playing plantation type music – really good fun!

Afterwards we walked around the corner to Mundo – an amazing bar with a Cuban flavour – and listened to the band who were doing Latin American type stuff although the guy on the organ was filling in playing some classical stuff.

Very enjoyable time…. and home to a chilled bedroom… Bliss!

Sunday morning up early again…..and time to rub down the floors again….. Unbelievable how mucky this job is!!!!  Take a look…..

Anyway, by the end of the day, we had rubbed it all down, cleaned it all up, and applied the second coat of wood sealant. Back at the apartment by 3pm so we took advantage of the plunge pool to cool down….. followed by a home cooked dinner and an early night.

Monday – today – up early again. This time we went via the “Wash, Dry, Fold” to drop off most of our laundry…. there will be more to come once we have finished the varnishing…. Back to Morphie and another rub down job….. After cleaning it all up we used a tack cloth to wipe over the floors and applied our first coat of varnish. Phew – this is hard work! And so hot down below in the boatyard desperately trying not to drip over the floor when we are working on it – and I’m wearing a scarf to avoid getting any hair mixed up with the varnish. Yes, I’m well overdue for a hair cut again!!!!

Back to the apartment via the supermarket to top up on supplies – and we’re now in front of the television having a cold beer…… which will be followed by dinner and another early night….

That’s it for now folks! Bye.

Jan