While we were back in the UK and Tumi was on the hard in Virginia, we asked that the engines were serviced in our absence. On returning to the boat, we were greeted with a "Hi, welcome back, here's your bill." Notwithstanding the fact that the bill was far higher than we anticipated, but it seems that the work was not done particularly well. We had to have a Yanmar engineer out to look at the engine in Annapolis as we had encountered a few problems with starting the engine after a period of it being idle and when said engineer looked at the engine, it was obvious that the 'service' was far from complete.
The other issue we had was on the outboard engine which was also 'serviced'. It too refused to start and as mentioned in an earlier blog, I had to strip out the carburettor and clean it to allow fuel to feed through into it.
We have resolved both problems but it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. The learning curve is for us to use the agents from the manufacturers to get the job done properly. More expensive on the face of it, but cheaper in the long run.
We also had an occasional leak in the aft starboard cabin that we could not get to the bottom of. It turns out that underneath the hanging locker there are some water pipes, one of which had a leaking joint. Another mystery solved. We took the floor up to dry out and have replaced everything after it dried. no more leaks.
At last the weather is warming up a bit as we start to head south. Some good sailing days in the past week, and a couple of days ago as we were leaving St Michaels on the eastern side of the Chesapeake, Tumi outstripped every other boat with the exception of a big cat. They always go fast on a beam reach. It was a nice feeling and we got several envying looks from the skippers of the other boats. I always said to Debra that the reason we got Tumi is that she will sail fast, and she doesn't disappoint!