...and we're out.. that's a wrap..

...and that's it for the 2025 sailing season..  Sparrow is now out..

12:57HT and a mahoosive 5.2M rise saw me on Sparrow, having cadged a lift out on the club launch, at about 11'ish - big Springs like that take their time coming in, and then it's like someone switched the light on and they are just there..

Waved goodbye to the rest of the Jolly Boys (who were going round the island for lift out on Dave's boat) and I thought I'd have a go at retrieving the top tackle from Sparrow rather than have to come out again in the tender, so I slipped a mooring line through the top shackle of the buoy, hauled it in, made it fast so as to make reaching it easier, and applied largest spanner and wrench that I had to the shackle that secures the swivel to the mooring buoy shackle...  and bugger me if it didn't come undone! 👏

Very very good indeed.. clearly application of lithium grease at the beginning of the season had done the trick!

Much cheered, I deployed some fenders, rigged mooring lines, and dropped the mooring for the last time for the motor under the bridge - tide was flowing fast and rising rapidly, I reckon I got under with no more than 30 minutes to spare..

Picked a spot on the pontoon, pulled her back to make room for the big boats, and waited my turn..

..really could do with a mid-ships cleat..

...we're trying a new system this haul out - which is to pressure wash the boats as they are lifted... it saves turning the hard standing into a boggy morass, as normally we would all pressure wash once we get put down, but that also slows us down - the lift team were planning on only about 10 boats a day for this one..

..and a wash..!😁

..three boats later and about an hour after high it was my turn..  no fouling video (again) this year as the lift out and pressure wash were so quick, no damning evidence could be filmed - suffice to say she was hideous...  a solid carpet of barnacles on the inside of both keels and the hull between, with weed and slime all over..  no wonder she was slowing down towards the end of the season...

..awesome skies for lift out, but warm'ish and more importantly no rain..

I've got a good spot this year, top of the yard, right next to power and water, and more importantly away from the spot I've had last few years which always seemed to form a puddle - most irritating when you have to work under the hull.. 😏

So - first ticks..

• outboard is off the boat, has been flushed, and is now safely on it's trolley in the garage
• cockpit locker lids have been swapped out for the (over winter) temporary ones - they're also in the garage awaiting the first sand, and primer
• the windex bit the dust sometime during Storm Amy - with the mast down, a windex will always get lateral wind force, and Amy was too much - the direction arrow/pointer has gone.. 😒
• new boom cover has arrived