In the Water!!!!

Finally the day came.  The engine and all its accessories were installed and the hull polished and bottom anti-fouled.  The fork lift truck came to tow us to the crane.  Anti-fouling was quickly painted on all the missed bits that were inaccessible while in the cradle.  

Songster in the cradle going towards the lifting pool

In the lifting crane

Touching up the anti-fouling

The crane fastened the straps under Songster’s hull and slowly lowered her into the lifting pool.  The moment of truth – Was all the plumbing done correctly?  Did we leave any seacocks in the wrong position?  Would Songster sink?   

In the straps - looking very shiny

The moment of truth

All was good and she looked beautiful with water around her hull.  We waited at the edge of the lifting pool for the marinaros to guide us to our berth on a pontoon.  But then the Marvelous Marlin Men in Red said we would go for the engine warranty test run.  How exciting!  We thought this wouldn’t happen for a few days.

Waiting for the engine test run

Bob getting instructions on the control panel

Off we went.  The motor sounded sweet.  She handled so smoothly.  I expected a bit of pull from the propeller rotation but Songster glided through the water.  At maximum rpm she did 8.4 knots – unbelievable.  We knew Songster was a solid blue water cruiser but never dreamed she would go this fast.

The smile never left my face for the rest of the day.

Nice!