Fitting out...a lorry

June 7th to 9th
Sorry to begin a sailing blog with motor mechanics but before we can start the Tales of Sailing Victoria we have to tell the tale of getting her ready to go. The plan is to take her to the Brest International Maritime Festival in July by road. She has her own lorry but it hasn't been used much recently and needs an MOT.

Howard posing for his next Facebook profile picture - anyone who knows him will recognise him from this

Track rods needed new rubber bushes - if that means anything to you. It doesn't to me except that it involved Howard crawling about underneath the cab as you see. There was also some tweaking needed to the starter motor although that wasn't going to be a show-stopper, which is just as well as whatever he did hasn't worked.

This won't be my next profile picture as no one would know me from this

We reckoned that the MOT testers would be better disposed to us if the lorry looked loved but I have to say I didn't love it much whilst crawling about painting 16 horizontal steel bars and the frame of the flat bed, top and bottom, in fast congealing red oxide paint. And I didn't love it when it took 2 and a half days and I had a headache for 2 of them, presumably due to inhaling noxious fumes all day but perhaps not helped by recuperative beers afterwards.

Test date is set for Wed 15th - fingers crossed