After a frantic couple of days getting the boat prepared, she went in the water today. It would be nice to say that everything went smoothly, but it didn’t! The yard put her in exactly when they had promised and I just had time to get the hull polished and a bit of cleaning done, but when they put the mast up, the strop for the mast got caught and in a fit of pique decided to take the tricolour light and the VHF aerial with it. This slowed things down considerably while they repaired everything. However, it was all done in good humour and they repaired everything very promptly and efficiently, so no harm done.
Once the boat was in the water and the mast stepped and fully rigged, I had supper with Pete and Carlos on a Lagoon 42. I didn’t immediately assume that the people on board were English given that the boat was flying the Jamaican ensign, but Pete was delivering the boat to Mallorca for the new owner. The boat was bought in Sweden and Carlos – the new owners nephew was also on board to help with the delivery. They very generously invited me to supper. My contribution was whisky and so after a few hours I just managed to navigate back to the boat. Luckily it was only two boats away or I might have struggled to find it – a very entertaining evening.
