Melina arrived back in the UK on the 2nd of Sept and then hauled out at Universal Shipyard in the Hamble river on the following day.
Melina will be ashore for refit until May 2006 when we plan to return to our home ground and have a season or two on the West Coast of Scotland.
At the moment the plan is to return to Brest & Douarnenez in 2008 and maybe the Azores. Other plans include a trip to Spitzbergan and two seasons in the Baltic with the winter in Poland.
Photos of the trip will be included in this site soon.
Ian
Melina arrived in Guernesy to find that the rudder was no longer attached to the keel! We dried out on the grid to view the problem and found the bottom of the rudder was more than 0.25m away from where it should have been. After a few phone calls Marine and General Engineers appeared. After making a replacement pintal they came down with jacks and pieces of wood, with a little help from Nevin and Ian they moved the rudder back into place and welded on the new pintal just before the tide returned.
We left on the 2nd Sept and motored across the channel in calm conditions to Studland Bay, off Poole. We then watche a demonstration of the Marines lifting RIBs out of the water with a helicopter and the crew being hoisted into the helicopter.