Friday 25 April 2014

Re-Masted and Re-Launched

Finally the winter repairs are finished. There is still a lot of cleaning-up and preparation to do, but that can be done once Mekicevica is in the water.
I prepared all the rigging, including new lower shrouds, and waited for the guys from Van Swaay to give me a hand raising the mast. This turned-out to be a five-minute job: one person lifted the mast from a raised platform, a second guided the mast and I attached the forestay. Done! They didn't even charged for the work, which I found really nice of them.
Then on to the water and to Mekicevica's new berth. This is in a corner, moored bow into a pontoon and with another pontoon on the port side. Really handy to get in and out with gear, without having to balance on a finger pontoon as was the case before. The disadvantage of the new berth only became apparent once I was in the water manoeuvring in: it is a really tight manoeuvre when there is a large yacht moored under the crane. By now I am pretty confident in my ability to manoeuvre Mekicevica, so I was sure I was able to do it. I didn't count that this was the first time I was doing it in seven months. I overestimated how much the wind would help turning the bow around and head-butted the wooden post. The only damage was a big dent in my pride, as the boat yard people moved the yacht a bit to allow me more space for the manoeuvre.

Oh, well! I'll do it better next time...