This morning we received a batch of photos showing the completed paint job. Zonder Zorg has a rather fine complexion for a 105-year-old lady.
Proudly wearing her new colours, she was ready to be rolled-out and prepared for re-launching.
She was picked-up by a low crawler and moved toward the water.
Her new four-bladed screw and freshly refinished rudder look wonderful.
Here we see some detail of the new stern bearing, shaft and propeller, as well as one of the protective anodes.
She was slung and gently lowered into the water...
... and for the first time in over six months, her bottom is wet again.
Before she was out of the slings, work resumed aboard. There are still many details to be attended to to make her liveable before we arrive on Monday, but we are assured that we will be able to move in upon arrival. Even then, we know there will be small things needing completion, tweaking, adjusting and refining. We look forward to moving aboard and making her our home.
A well executed plan. Well done! Looks like the yard know what they are doing. Looking forward to my circumnavigation beginning 2015 but I see the sense of what you are doing. As we get older we can't be bouncing around forever however much I hate to admit it - good thinking. Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind comments. It has been a pleasure working with SRF in Harlingen. They are among the top experts in restoring old vessels, and knowing this, we gave them a very loose rein. We are delighted with the results seen from afar, and we anticipate that close inspection will delight us even more.
ReplyDeleteOn our change of plans; by the third year along on our circumnavigation, we had grown very tired of Third-World bureaucracy and corruption. Once we had been to Cape Horn, we began questioning whether we wanted two more years of crime, corruption and small-minded bureaucrats. Thoughts of returning to the European canals began occupying more and more of our minds, and not being idle dreamers, we acted.
Thank you for your blog. Fascinating! We are at the beginning of our search, and your experience so far is a great education for us.
ReplyDeleteShirley... Thank you for the nice words; they encourage us to keep writing. We are tonight on our maiden voyage in Zonder Zorg and stopped in a tiny canal off a small side canal off a small canal in central Friesland. A few small arisings will be added to the short list of things needing completion, and we should be ready to head out in a week or so. Good luck with your search.
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