I’d arranged with Tim, the ’waterman’ to come alongside the quay on the morning high tide around 0730. When I woke it was blowing a hoolie and I sleepily decided to roll over and leave everything for another day. Just then the phone rang and it was Tim wondering if I was on my way… Getting dressed quickly, up on deck I began to get organised, sort of.

I finally let go of the mooring lines, in itself not a straightforward task. There being four in all, two at the Bow and two at the Stern. Making a wide turn out into the channel I continued to make sure I had lines ready and in the right places, fenders out on the starboard side. Coming into the quay wall, concrete and rock with a bit of tide running, and around 25+ kts of wind against me was a process that demanded utmost attention. Tim was no where to be seen, and I had to take the lines for’d and jump ashore, taking a couple of turns around a bollard. Unfortunately the forward fender was not quite in the right place and i gained a bit of gravel rash on the hull and rubbing strake. Unsightly, but nothing that can’t be buffed out..!

Suddenly Tim appeared and we quickly got the remaining lines attached to the quay and two VERY large fenders of Tim’s in place. Dawn was in place and staying out of trouble, albeit with some bouncing around in the waves and wind. Now to wait for the tide to ebb and for Dawn to take the ground.

Once the tide had dropped and Dawn was sitting on the ground, upright. I had a walk around and was pleasently surprised how clean she was, just a bit of slime, but no weed and no barnacles. The main job had been to inspect the packing in the Stern Gland which was leaking more than it needed to be. I gave the hull a brush down to remove the slime, noticed that some of the thru-hulls were blocked either having being painted over or with muck. I cleaned these out as best I could with a piece of bent wire. I also took out the dysfunctional log/speed sensor and replaced it with the new one I bought back in August. Still to be hooked up internally though. I checked the propeller and rudder, gave the anti-fouling a look over and a general inspection of the planking.

All in all everything looked good. The experience of drying out has been had and the nerves of doing so allayed somewhat for the future. Tomorrow I’ll look at the Stern Gland.

The packing was very dry and needs replacing for sure, as a temporary fix I wound some PTFE tape around the shaft and added a bit of marine grease before replacing the two rings (packing and locking). The dribble has been turned into a drip again, still not perfect but SO much better.

I now have some replacement packing, and will look to drying out again when weather and tide coincide favourably in the early new year. After a few days I left the quay wall and returned to my mooring.