Clogged Arteries

Meriva was lifted out of the water in El Hierro on the  26th February, 2013. It all went very smooth thanks to Dario, the Crane Driver who was very professional, calm and efficient. We also had a little help from our friends LoLo, Gill, Matilde and Felice.

Go on you jump first, no you.....what shall we do?

It was an interesting challenge for Tristan to sort out the boat support on the hard without a cradle.
This would not have been possible without the help of Williams, our landlord and local 'Mr. Fix It'.

We have survived hurricane force winds and minor but frequent earthquakes,  propped up on acroprops and a cradle made of local El Hierro Canary  pine sourced from the woodyard in El Pinar.   The rusty old oil drums just add a little 'extra', just in case!

Tristan has re-caulked a lot of both the topsides and underwater seams. I re-varnished all the  varnish.

Before

The caulking cotton was posted from the UK and arrived in four days. Lucy was fantastic and posted  us replacement zinc anodes for the prop. Susanna from  ' Taxi Divers' was the key to  our parcel deliveries and we are grateful for her kindness. Caddy  in the Cooperativa  de Pescadores was brilliant at ordering materials from  Tenerife. However  we had trouble getting Epiphanes Number  24 so  Meriva is now International Ivory!

During

We have now finished painting the hull and antifouling. We have been unable to get boot top, so we have had to use anitfouling. It may not the best finish, but we need to do sea trails and will no doubt get Meriva out of the water again before the end of the year when she will have a full makeover.

Time has flown by, we will have had Meriva out of the water for a month on Tuesday, fortunately the weather hasn't been too hot. Our days in the flat are numbered  and while we have enjoyed having showers and a washing machine; being able to walk away from the boat at the end of the day has been essential for surviving the programme of boat repairs, we are looking  forward to moving back onto the boat and going sailing!