Released from Lockdown

Since Christmas we have had only a couple of overnight stays aboard Moonshine, however due to windy weather earlier in the year we opted to stay in the marina. During the month of March, it became increasingly obvious that a boat holiday was going to be out of the question until later in the year.
However, we have been busy with boat jobs prior to lockdown. New carpeting to hull areas in all three cabins, and some additional lighting in the forward cabin. The new biscuit colour is a lot nicer than the original blue which was starting to break down.

Moonshine had her annual lift out the week before lockdown, and we were lucky to have her relaunched before everything came to a 'standstill'. 

One little job which was annoying us, was to replace a sun yellowed plastic vent on the mates side of the wheelhouse. We found a Plastimo vent  which was a direct replacement, which was purchased from Goole Boathouse.

We had a problem with the original Volvo/VDO starboard engine tachometer which was failing to read.  These are becoming very difficult and somewhat expensive to source. We enquired about a repair, however this was going to be £185 plus vat, and this may not have been a guaranteed price depending on what fault they found. After much deliberation, we decided to buy two new matching 4000rpm KUS Marine tachos, with a black face and stainless steel bezel. These were ordered mid January from China for £38.99 each, and took 6 weeks to arrive. Upon arrival, we paid the customs charge (about £18 which needed to be paid before the Post Office would release the package to us), and with much excitement we unpacked them only to find white faces. These needed to be returned as they would not match our dashboard. We eventually received replacements 3 weeks later, after advising them to declare with customs they were warranty items. We were now into lockdown, and rather frustratingly were unable to fit them. Once restrictions were eased, Peter visited Moonshine and carefully enlarged the mounting holes with a power file so as not to damage the veneer, as the old tachos were flush mounted and a lot smaller in diameter. We are really pleased with the look and the quality for the price paid.

This weekend we paid a visit to Moonshine, and stopped at Sykehouse Road Bridge for the day, before heading back home later on the Saturday evening as Peter was on call the following day. Hopefully we will be able to stay overnight very soon, and start planning ahead for a simple holiday aboard later in the summer.