Return to sydney after the winter

After a long winter of work back in the UK it was time to get back to the boat in Nova Scotia. Rob and I had spent a week back in October winterising and moth balling the boat. Which was a lot tougher than we had anticipated. Many more things to think of that we had. Luckily for us we had a new friend from Sydney, Dwayne Fudge. Who had all the answers for us and even lent us his truck to run around and collect everything we needed. Not often I use this term but Dwayne has been a total Legend. Winterising jobs were, all sails off, all ropes moused, boom off. Remove all canvas spray hood sail bag etc. Drain water tanks, drain water maker, pump plumbing system full of antifreeze (potable) pump water-maker full of different anti freeze. Check antifreeze level in engine cooling system. Check and top up antifreeze in heating system. Pump water out of feathering prop with grease. Pump antifreeze through all bilge and shower drain pumps. Build shelter for cockpit to keep snow out. Cover with tarp and fishing net to stop flapping. Everything to withstand -20c and 70mph winds. Hopefully when we get back it will all have survived. Again we were very lucky to have new friends in Sydney to keep an I on any problems as the long winter ticked by. The out side looked fine when we arrived just as we had left it. Had anything internal frozen or cracked. Dwayne told us the winter had not been

Rob and I had had an early start n Bude on our journey to Nova Scotia, and again we had the luck of Gretyl dropping us at Heathrow on the way to her sisters. We had to arrive at the airport early as we has guns to check in. (Standard bear protection for northern Labradore) Rob had bought a pump action shotgun a beefy rifle, neither of which were in my knowledge of comfort zone. The idea of walking into Heathrow with a box of rifles and ammunition seems a bit unlikely but that was what were doing. We arrived at check in and explained what we had and where we were going which created a stir. Supervisor was called, Rob had all the paperwork in order and t went as smoothly as could be expected, we were even asked to open the gun box in the middle of the airport to put some paperwork inside. Seemed like a bad plan.
We were walked to stern customs official for the final tick in the box before we could leave. Tick done. We managed to strike up a conversation with him about airport security in general. And he said the confiscate 20kg of Cocaine every day and he reckoned that would be less than 10 percent of what got through. Any way off for a beer and breakfast.

Dwayne picked us up from the airport and had made us up beds at his house for the night. Little did we know he was happy to put up with us for more than 20 days. When we woke up Dwayne was at work at the end of his “garden” see photo. He is a specialist Harley mechanic and has a small workshop at down by the sea repairing and servicing Harley Davison’s. When we popped into see him he said keys are in the truck it’s yours for as long as you need it. It became known as robs truck.

We arrived at the boat, sitting pretty in the car park, next to the travel lift. Looked OK from the outside. Hopefully nothing frozen or cracked on the inside. Day one would be stripping off the custom shelter. And putting the sails back on so we had room to move around in the boat. A good day, sails on ropes re moused, except reefs which we are replacing. Home for tea.

Day 2 is beginning to start flushing out the anti freeze and start negotiating when is a good time to get lifted back in the water. There are no other sailors getting lifted in this early in the season so Joel , the lift guy from the club is doing us a special favour by servicing and taking the lift out of mothball early. Luckily for us one other Northen yacht club member (also OCC) Jean is thinking of heading off on an Azores trip and is keen to go in early too. Jean has also been keeping and eye on our boat during the winter.

Birthday week end is here and Dwayne and Betty suggest joining them for a trip to Halifax for the week end, to help celebrate. As always Finglas myself in an Irish bar (dirty Nelly’s)late at night and a sore head in the morning. Not to shabby for a foreign birthday week end.

Day 5 have organised 2 parcels from home to be delivered and a parcel from Wavinn with survival suits and sundries for cold wether survival. Also the tricky part of getting the life raft serviced was seeming to get trickier. Today was going to be taken up tracking all this down. In the modern world where no big companies answer the phone only online comms it was going to be a very frustrating day.

Day 6 absolutely no new on any of day 5 chasing. Starting to get worried UPS are genuinely the most useless communicators of any company ever. And have everything of ours to get this trip going. From skis to navigational information. Life raft company have lost the life raft. Wavinn have sent the suits back to spainLeia mais