It is the evening of Thursday 13th July, we are moored alongside a jetty in a beautiful little creek on the Veerse Meer. It is incredibly peaceful and calm after the last few days.
We are only disturbed but a couple of policemen on jet skis who zoom past a wave cheerily!
Grace had been lifted that afternoon, a bit of an alarming experience as the Crane operator undoes the back stay of the mast – I thought it was there to stop it from falling down but am assured that it will be fine…..usually! Worse is to come, he slips two straps under her hull and dangles her out of the water!
The engineer looks at the prop, one of the blades of the auto prop seems to be a bit stiff and not moving as easily as the others. I had delved deep into the hold and found a bag marked grease gun for auto prop and the spare propeller. The propeller and sail drive are flushed out and cleaned. The rest of the hull looks nice and clean. Clearly the anti fouling paint is working fine and I am advised not to have the hull cleaned as it will damage it. The rudder is inspected and other than a small chunk out of the bottom then it is fine too.
We have a quick confab and decide to grease the prop blades rather than change it and that and the cleaning seem to have worked.
Grace is back in the water and a test sail to our resting place for the night confirms all is now well.
but for the Grace 
Mike says he knows how Grace feels! Clearly lots learnt … and Grace seems to be bearing up. Sitting here in Bournville we are appreciating your adventurous spirit.
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Don’t we just know it!
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