After we waved goodbye to Robyn our thoughts turned to preparing for heading home. Monday was set aside for tidying up the ship and getting some washing done. Debbie spent some time catching up with our home accounts and David swapped around our main halyard and spare genoa halyard as the old main halyard was showing signs of fraying where it goes into the clutch. The other job which took longer than expected was sorting our toilet pump. It had stopped working when we were in Puilladobhrain and we had to resort to a bucket for flushing. Taking the pump off revealed a long strand of weed in the inlet pipe and dismantling the pump showed it to be full of bits of weed.
Replacing all the old valves and seals was straightforward but refitting it making sure that it was properly seated took several attempts and a lot of time and frustration. The elbow in the discharge pipe is hard against the moulding behind it which makes alignment difficult. If only the toilet had been fitted 20mm further forward life would have been so much easier!
We did find a little time for socialising. Jill Rogers, a fellow Sadler Starlight association member, joined us for a cup of tea from her bright red Sadler 25, Vela.
She was close to us in the marina and was making her way up to Corpach to go into the Caledonian canal. She is making her way around Britain single handed, a very positive, cheerful lady!
We also met Jim and Serena, in a Halberg Rassy 385 when they came alongside the fuel berth. Hearing of our toilet pump problem Jim told me about a neat Jabsco inline filter which he had fitted. We went aboard to have a look and they came back for tea and fruit cake on Lacerta. The inline filter is a definite the next time I am at a chandlery, it would have saved me a lot of cursing! The spacious aft cabin on the Halberg Rassy made us very jealous but I don’t think we can run to one of those just yet.
We finally managed to visit the farm shop on Kerarra and came away with some very nice pork and apple burgers after meeting two very hairy highland cattle on the track to the farm!
All this made doing the washing a little late so Debbie got a load done then we caught the ferry into Oban for a little last minute shopping and a quick, cheap and cheerful (and excellent value) dinner at Wetherspoons before returning to the marina and hitting the tumble dryers so we had some bedding to sleep under!
Sailing Lacerta 