Moments of truth

As you can see from Teemu's marvelous photos beneath, Mrs Summertime is back in action. There were times when I almost lost my faith and thought yesterday wasn't going to be 100% successful but we managed to bring her to the home pier. Here are some photos from Wednesday:

She sure looks long when seen from this angle!

At this point I started to feel a little worried when the water kept rising at a rate of approx. 1mm/minute.

Brand new bilge pump trying to fulfill its destiny but not quite succeeding...

After 2 or so hours of tender care, we left her on her own, with water pouring happily from the port side nozzle.

And here's one shot for the records (odometer at the beginning of the season)

It's the result that counts...

Today we had some ups and downs, but finally succeeded. We turned at 8am sharp at the docks to get Summertime lifted and lowered, but the place was empty and wouldn't you know, we had to come back at noon. The professional guys from Reffe Oy hoisted her up and down ((watch a short video on YouTube).

Unfortunately she leaked like a sieve, and our new bilge pump (Rule-Mate 1100A from Captain's Shop) couldn't handle all the water coming in. While I filled buckets and buckets with warmish sea water, Mikko bought a submersible pump from Alppi-Rauta. After an hour the water level got lower and we were able to get underway to our pier at Tervasaari.

And after some preliminary hickups, the engine purred and we finished our first leg of 2012 season without incidents (4.9 km)!