Due to Easter being late this year and the yard not wanting to put Muskrat into the water before Easter, we arrived in Pisa much later than our usual end of March get away. 

Despite it being the school holidays, the flight out was on time and in fact due to a tail wind, we arrived in Pisa at 0900am Italian time. By 1000am we were back on Muskrat looking her over. At first assessment all looked good. There has been so much rain over the winter here her decks were lovely and clean and the old bimini and spray hood had kept out most of the rain and dirt. The shield bugs that had been trying to get into Muskie for a nice warm winter while we were trying to tidy up and put Muskie to bed, had not managed to get in, thank goodness, their smell is just repulsive and we were worried that we might find them all inside the boat when we arrived back.

However, on further inspection and when we started to get things going again we found 3 main problems.

1. On arrival in the yard and when we had been put in our position on the hard last year, Chris had warned the yard owner that the electric overhead power cable was very close to our wind generator and in danger of touching it and damaging the electrical side. He did move us a bit further away and we were relatively happy. On our arrival back this year, it was obvious Muskrat had been moved back even further to make way for more boats in the yard and now our wind vane was actually touching the overhead power cable. Discussion with the yard manager, was hopeless, he was determined that we could not be moved forward to clear us from the power cable. We can only hope that there has not been any damage to our wind vane or the AIS. Unfortunately until we move further away, we cannot refit the blades and test it.

2. While washing up and trying to dispose of the water down the sink, it became apparent that the macerator pump was not working. Chris had a go at trying to fix it, but it was obvious we needed a replacement.

3. While trying to fix the macerator pump, we discovered water dripping into the bilge at quite an alarming rate. We are not in the water, so it wasn’t sea water, so the only other thing it could be is the hot water tank. Sure enough it was leaking and it became apparent that the problem was the tank casing, so a replacement is needed. 

So, it was onto the internet to see if we could source replacement hot water tank and macerator in time for launching. We informed the yard manager of our problem and that our launch would have to be postponed until we had managed to get these replacement parts. Chris found what he wanted online from SVB in Germany but the delivery date would not be until the end of the month. Then the yard manager suggested another company in Italy to try, who, if they had what we needed, would deliver the next day. Chris found the parts and tried to order them only to be informed that they wouldn’t sell to individuals, only to companies. At this point the yard manager said he would order them for us. He did this Thursday afternoon and then he picked them up and delivered them to us Friday morning. He also collected our life raft, that had been serviced and delivered that along with the order. 

Chris had the macerator fitted by end of play on Friday. Given that this was now “Good Friday” we considered ourselves very lucky. So the Easter weekend is looking busy replacing the hot water tank. 

Launching might still be a problem though. There has been so much rain in Italy this winter, the river Arno is at the top of its banks and is running very fast. When we entered the river last year, we had very little water under the keel at the mouth of the river due to the silt that is dumped down from the river as it enters the Med. There could be two consequences of the flooding river. 1. That the river is running so fast it has taken the silt away and dumped it at sea, or  2. that it has dumped even more silt at the mouth of the river and it is now even more shallow than when we came in. Finding out which one it is, is going to be difficult.

So that is our fun and games for the Easter weekend. I am always being reminded that sailing is boat maintenance in exotic places!

Happy Easter everyone

Boat yard empty and all closed up. Easter 2025

New hot water tank

Old macerator pump. Even chris can’t fix this