... And she's in

I have finally found the time to drop Ciao Bella in the water. Sunday was pretty wet in the morning but the forecast on Windguru was for a dry spell in the evening, just about the time when there would be some water at slipway at Baiter.

First things first, I dragged the trusty Tohatsu out of the garage, filled the tank with fresh petrol and ran it in a dustbin for a while.  I didn't want it to splutter to a halt and leave me drifting around the harbour :)

 

I had moved the boat onto the grass verge last week in the hope of finding a suitable time to launch,  I needed to get the mast on board, not easy on your own, and strap the whole lot down.

Having set the crutch up on the stern, I lifted the top of the mast onto the rail, then tied it as close to the crutch as possible.  Then using one of the halyards I pulled the bottom of the mast up onto the front of the boat.

I got to Baiter about 4pm where Paul, my glamorous assistant, met me to help rig the boat.   After the usual kerfuffle the mast was up and she was ready to glide majestically down the slipway.. I just had to slip into my fetching wet suit first... don't worry, there are no photos!
Apart from the occasional large pebble acting as a wheel chock the trailer went easily down the slip, without falling off the side.  I floated Ciao Bella off the trailer and anchored her off the side of the slipway, then swam back to the trailer to recover that.
Eventually on board, dried and motoring over to EDSC it felt great to be back on the water.

Motoring away from Baiter

There are a few things still to do, I will have to replace some of the bottle screws and also I worryingly found a loose screw head on the stem head fitting, I hope it has just vibrated loose and not sheared.
As I paddled away the sun was just descending and the view, as always, was stunning.  It took about 4 hours in total to launch this year,  not bad, especially as I was going at a very unhurried pace.

It's good to be back.