In Which We Are No Longer Surrounded By Water

Doug had been wanting to see whether our hull was growing weed, as he feared this might be slowing us down.

So, when we saw another boat using the harbour wall to dry out against, we went to take a look and decided to do the same the following day.

This is all OK if you have a long, supportive keel like the other boat...  But we have a fin keel that could easily tip us over if not adequately supported.  So, having tied alongside the wall at high water, we then proceeded to run a myriad of lines ashore to support both ends of the boat, stop the bow or stern rotating and hold the mast firmly towards the shore (no tipping away from the wall).
We tied up to the useful rings on the quayside as well as to the railings running along the edge.
In the end, we decided there was no room to fit any more ropes to the shore!

Just to be certain, we shifted our 2 spare water containers and the heavy life raft to the inboard side of the boat.  We must lean towards the shore and not the other way!

It was now time to wait till the tide went out when we would be left sitting on our keel and resting against a bunch of wooden pallets left for us against the harbour wall.

Waiting For The Tide

There were some worrying squeaking sounds as the boat started slipping down against the pallets and we slowly settled onto the concrete surface at the foot of the slipway below.

It feels very unnatural for a boat to be out of water and we were concerned not to do anything that might accidentally overbalance her.  This was our first time of drying her out away from a boatyard and their purpose-designed boat cradles.

Dried Out And Cleaning Our Hull

We found very little weed growth on the hull but gave her a good clean anyway and we also fitted a new anode on the propeller shaft.

6 hours later the water returned and we were relieved to re-float and return, cleaned, to our berth in the marina.

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