I spoke too soon

And then engine was ne radi. Two days later we tried to start her and she didn't sound good. Then we discovered something quite awful - the anti-syphon had failed and after we'd last turned off the engine, the engine had flooded with sea-water.

Disaster.

If I'd written this entry that day, or the day after, the day after that or even the day after that, my teeth would have been clenched and my head deep in hurt. However, after some skilful diagnosis over those days and some stoical, head down and get in sorted out attitude from our Tim plus many, many oil changes, the engine appears to have survived unscathed.

We were down to the wire with only 24 hours before our first guests stepped aboard, but against the odds, Monty B's faithful Yanmar (which Tim is beginning to fall out of love with) roared back into life and at 5pm, we took her and the crew of Maplin Bird out onto the peaceful waters of Tivat Bay. The sound of water slooshing past the hull has never sounded so sweet.

The second time back on the water and first time getting the sails up was with guests on board. How crazy is that? We've already lost 3 weeks of potential pre-season cruising time.

But at least the boat is working. Hooo bloody rar!

On a completely unrelated subject, this is my first attempt at photographing the moon.