Back in Portugal!

And... we're back in Portugal after a 34hr trip back from Australia, and a morning travelling back from the UK. Our last week in Adelaide was fantastic, with plenty more catch ups, a couple of BBQ's and generally seeing Nathan's family. Our weekend in the UK was spent watching the rugby and a dinner or two.

Anyway, we arrived back in Portugal and were greeted by our freshly arrived parts - mast pieces, a boom, sails, folding props - the list goes on. The mast transporter hadn't done a very good job of keeping all our bits together, but everything arrived and we cracked on with fitting them.

First up, the folding props. All was going well until we found out the main securing bolt wasn't quite big enough, so after a mild panic, Nathan headed to an old school engineering shop and an hour later, had the bolts drilled out on the lathe. Total cost - 5 Euros. Bargain!

Next up, fitting the rigging to the new mast, and our new rudder stock. We were getting a bit behind with jobs as we were due to relaunch today but as lady luck would have it, the crane driver decided to take an impromtu holiday, so we now have until Monday to get everything done before going back in the water.

On the bus trip back from the airport, we spotted some big swells off the point and found the boat yard awash with Red Bull surfers - big wave season is finally here so the plan is to go check out the surf tomorrow.... update to follow!