Last Wednesday Endeavour Quay Boatyard towed Beyzano from her berth and lifted her out. After work I went to the yard and there she was, so clean and free of fouling that I thought she had been painted during the afternoon! Nobody could believe she’d been in the water nearly a year but I guess using her during the winter has kept the weed off.

Rob and Keith worked on polishing, the yard changed the rudder bearings and our generator work was completed. We put on new genoa sheets, traveller lines and the prop anode and she was back in the water on the following Monday. We figured as it seems to be rudders dropping off all over the place, that we would have that checked and the helm had become very stiff anyway.

So that is that for another year and for the first time I didn’t even touch a paint roller or polishing cloth. Didn’t even put on my blue overalls, aka the Smurf Suit. I was at work and then in Aberdeen for the weekend.

Based at Haslar, we are fortunate to have the most friendly, helpful and knowledgeable electronics experts who at short notice will come down to the boat, advise and install, support and fix.

We had all our navigation equipment replaced with Raymarine as we were used to the make and functionality. An E120 Plotter at the helm with a repeater on our TV which swings on a specially made bracket was installed and makes a big difference to passage making. The AIS is also a godsend.

I know sailors didn’t have this kind of equipment in years gone by and managed well enough but nor did early cars have headlights. Would you still have a man walking in front of your car with a lamp for the sake of ‘we used to do without’? No, didn’t think so!

On Sunday we went out for a sail and had just got out of the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, near low water and a drying patch, when the engine revs starting dying away and we finally lost the engine completely when we tried increasing the revs. The fuel filter was completely clogged with sludge and slime and we started drifting towards the bank until at one point we had only a foot of water under our 14 ton boat.

We got the genoa out faster than ever before and managed to sail away into the main channel and out of the danger of going aground. Still had the issue of ferries and the hovercraft to think about but after sailing towards Cowes for a couple of hours we decided to head back to Haslar and see if the engine would get us in. It was a lovely sunny day, so we enjoyed the sailing part of it!

We sailed virtually to the harbour entrance, gratefully heard the engine start and dropped the main. We kept very low revs and were fortunate the tide was with us into the marina. We continued to use the genoa until the last moment but the engine carried on until we were secure in our berth again. I really needed a drink then!

Rob changed the filter yesterday and took pictures of the state of it. We really should have changed it before as we had an idea it was getting clogged. Good lesson learnt and no damage done. Phew!!!

Not the most exciting news but we have a new management system for our batteries. Essential to know how much power our wind generator is producing and how much juice our batteries have left and how much we are using. Our old system didn’t work at all but had a lot of pretty lights on it! The new one is smaller and less exciting but all we need is for it to do what it says it can, manage the batteries.

Next we have to complete the set up – doesn’t look too difficult in the manual – famous last words.

What have I come to, being compelled to write about this topic!