Thursday 6 April
French time being an hour ahead of the ship’s clock, Skipper set his alarm for an early call to be at the yard before work started, in order to complete the necessary preparations, such as disconnecting all electrics before welding took place. The welder appointed to the repairs was Thierry, who built my hull in the first place, and had the muscle for any manual adjustments needed along the way. Skipper took advantage of the lift out to clean and inspect my hull below the waterline, and was able to scrape away the pesky barnacles that attach themselves to my prop, bow thruster and Forward-Looking Sonar (FLS), as well as polish up the anodes. He discovered that my propeller was a little loose, so it was lucky I was in the yard for that to be tightened up before it fell off into the sea, although apparently that wasn’t really very likely. He learned a lot about aluminium welding, and was very impressed with the care and quality of workmanship. He’s confident I am now stronger and better than ever.
Meanwhile, Mate stayed in the hotel, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and settled down to bring this blog towards up to date, thanks to the hotel’s free wifi. It was such a beautiful sunny day that in the end she took Daisy out on the Tourlaville road to the Leclerc hypermarket for some provisions she’d been unable to source in town. She made a mad dash back to the yard to stow the shopping aboard before they closed the gates at the factory, and after a leisurely shower 
back at the hotel, the crew enjoyed a very good prix fixe menu at L’Equipage, the yacht club at the marina.