Alternate Title 1: Going around in circles
Alternate Title 2: All dressed up with nowhere to go
So we arrived at the marina this morning to find our beautiful yacht floating in the water. The sails were just finishing being attached when we arrived. Boy is she beautiful.
Our broker (Tom) was present, and so was the surveyor (Gary). We were also introduced to the marina owner (Tom Holland), Julian Crisp, and Aylmer who would be our Captain for the test sail. While Aylmer was running through the pre-sail checks he found the steering wasn't working correctly. They brought a hydraulic technician on board to work on it. Seems the system had a fault which had been jury-rigged to get it working (most likely while far off-shore). It would have been nice if we'd been told ahead of time and the yard could have fixed it. After three hours with several of them working on it, replacing a piston and trying to adjust it, they called it off. No test sail today.
On the bright side, we are getting the entire hydraulic steering replaced with a new system.
The rest of the survey continued while the technician was working on the steering. A few minor things were found, but they were mostly because it was a South African boat and not up to Transport Canada and US Coast Guard regulations. So we will need to replace the fire extinguishers, add a smoke detector and two carbon monoxide detectors, and get enough PFDs for everyone on board. Also the fuel lines were not up to code, so Kyle and I will be running new fuel lines next week.