Challenges!
After our experience with the suicidal cruising chute off Portugal, one lesson learnt was that having a sewing machine on board could be really handy. Having duly bought one of ebay, there remained the challenge of getting it to the boat, along with various spares and a mini-bowsprit. Fresh from reading the Daily Mail’s expose about the efforts and incentives made by Ryanair to fleece their customers, it took quite a bit of doing to get our bags within the expensive 15/20 kg limits. However we succeeded and duly lugged everything onto the train and to the boat.
One pleasant surprise was to bump into Dave and Liz from Infinite Dream in the departure lounge at Birmingham Airport!
We had a couple of days maintenance planned, mainly touching up the anti-fouling and changing the anodes. It was only when greasing the seacocks that we discovered 2 had almost seized open, and one was missing the internal valve to close it! Extraordinary, but given that we found these only hours before the hoist was due to put us back in the water, the pressure was on. Thanks to some rapid work by the boatyard, all was done in time.
With some welcome drinks aboard Infinite Dream, together with the crew from Imagine, it was a real pleasure to get together again with some fellow Rally Portugal friends.
Freebooter 