Finally, the boat is fixed, and in fine fettle again..... (well almost)
A couple of last minute hitches that nearly put the whole plan out in the long grass.....
Firstly, I lay in bed last night, with my mind doing 1,000mph, when suddenly I realised in a moment of panic that i'd forgotten to tell the engineer that we had a rope cutter fitted..... and that this needed fine tolerance in terms of fitting the shaft in the same fore and aft position as it was previously.... this shouldn't have been a problem with an identical replacement gearbox.... only the gearbox wasn't quite identical in that the model had been superceded by a newer version, which was 'dimensionally identical'.... only my mind started saying things like "what if its 1mm shorter"... then the fixed and rotating parts of the cutter would clash, with unthinkable consequences... of at best a destroyed cutter, and possibly a damaged shaft or a ripped off P bracket...... no wonder I couldn't sleep!
Secondly, the cutter is an Ambassador stripper, and this has a kind of 'V' into which the fixed part locates when the shaft is pulled inboard..... if the V is fixxed at the 6 o'clock position on the P bracket then it will naturally locate itself.... and I couldn't remember where it was on Morgana.... I had a picture, but it was at home.....
So I spoke to the engineer, and the only solution he could offer was a lift out to locate it properly.... another £115..... however, he did then suggest that he sees many boats with the cutter not properly located, and it sits happily to the side of the V... not performing quite as designed, but perfectly safe.....
This was a relief for three reasons.... one, the lift would have further added to the costs, two, the lift couldn't be done until Saturday afternoon... and thirdly we have a lift planned for the end of September anyway at our home marina, and to have to pay for two lifts in 3 weeks just seemed unfair!
So finally, the engineer tells me that she is running as sweet as anything now.... only other thing he can find is that the heat exchanger is on its last legs, so will need replacing over the winter..... that I can do myself.... phew!
OK.... so we're on for the delivery trip over the weekend.... only its now forecasting 30kts+ for the Friday and 25kts+ for the Saturday... Sunday a bit better..... will be watching the forecast develop carefully..... it seems stacked against us at the moment! | 
