7 July 2026 – Anchored at La Linea, Spain

As I post this blog, we have just finished our work period, and returned to the anchorage at La Linea, adjacent to Gibraltor. We are now peacefully resting, and relaxing on anchor.

To be honest, personally, I had been dreading this haul out. As I get older, climbing up and down the ladder and working on scaffolding gets tiring and the risk of accidents increases – thankfully, nothing untoward happened. We had forecasted 2 weeks, but it blossomed into 6 weeks, less a day. That often happens, because indeterminate things come up. The shaft was shipped to us (no issues with Customs), but the shipping company was quite tardy about delivery, taking two weeks rather than the contracted one week (about 1500km). The shipment lingered in Jerez, under 200km away, just waiting there for no good reason.

Once the shaft was here, the yard had it sent off to the machine shop within an hour. They delivered it back (after machining to fit our propeller and shaft coupling) 7 days later. The next day, our new cutlass bearing came in (as ordered by the yard), and they installed it for me with their hydraulic press.

In the meantime, we were also kept busy with small improvements to our new Highfield dinghy. We had to setup a two point lift, so that the dinghy would be balanced at the stern when lifted in the davits. We also had to setup a 3 point lift, so that it could be hoisted alongside with the motor. With the gas tank mounted forward in the bow locker, we had to run the fuel line under the floor so nobody steps on it. Finally, I cut a hole in the bow locker and setup a very heavy SS chain passing through a custom hawse pipe. This is the Eastern Caribbean standard for securing your dinghy!

We also named the dinghy LIL JON, just like our last one – this time using an Edding 950 permanent marker. This Edding brand of marker is unknown in Canada, but in common use in Europe. The 950 version lays down a layer of paint, and yes – it is permanent and easy to use.

The touch-up paint of our green topsides was a big success, and it was nice to be able to do that work from scaffolding rather than hang upside down from the deck. Diane and I put the new shaft in ourselves, using copious amounts of dish soap, and the sliding hammer for the last bit. We both worked the shaft up 80% of the way by hand, and once it entered the engine room and had to be fitted through the remaining components – I went inside. Here, the shaft is just poking into the engine room.

Here, Diane poses with the sliding hammer, that she used to whack it up the last two feet.

Once it was in it’s final position, we measured what sticks out at the bottom (before the propeller and rope cutter are fitted) – 25cm.

Inside the engine room, I bolted tight the bottom end of the flexible coupling, tightened down the thrust bearing and fitted the Tides Marine lip seal, and the carrier with the spare seal.

The propeller, shaft and rope cutter were given two coats of white primer (as shown here) and then three coats of International Trilux 33 (which then made it all bright blue).

For those that are curious what our yard bill cost, I will detail it below:

Lift: 276 € Launch: 276 €
Pressure Wash: 248 € (4 hours, very detailed)
42 days on the hard: 1555.68 €
Shoring/Blocking: 154 €
Waste Management: 330 €
Water and Electricity (17.49 per day): 734.58 €
Welding of my sliding hammer (supplying and welding a nut): 62 €
Scaffolding Rental for 13 days on the hard: 130 €
Security (coming in on a Saturday): 60 €
Welding contractor: 640 €
Machining of new shaft: 756 €
New cutlass bearing: 172.15 €
Fitting of new cutlass bearing: 62 €
Two litres of epoxy primer: 261.92 €
Two metre length of gasoline hose for dinghy: 15.93 €
Yard total: 5735.26
21% VAT: 1204.40

Also, I supplied these items:
New shaft: 1,371,60 €
One litre of Coppercoat anti-fouling and 2L of epoxy primer: 283.16 €
New Tides marine shaft seal and spare (on hand in my spares, $650 USD?)

All together, this comes out to 8594.42 €, and when converted to Canadian dollars $13,962.63. This doesn’t include the hotel stay (55 € per night, changing to 65 € in high season) It sounds worse than it was. Most people haul out every year, but we haven’t need to lift since 2020. Also, we did almost all the work ourselves. Many yards don’t permit this.

We are now looking forward to a relaxing holiday on anchor, without the requirement to climb up and down the ladder twenty times a day. The next steps will be to finish making adjustments to our dinghy lift, and to commission the water maker, which has been pickled for the past two years.