We had got out of the yard which meant that we needed to put the sails back up. While we had the sails down we used the opportunity to service in and around the sails, for example the foresail was down so this was a great opportunity to grease the bearings at the top of the forestay. Admittedly we did not do that initially which meant that we had to drop the foresail, so that we could grease the bearing at the top then raise it again, but we did remember to look at the boom and see if there was any issues with that.

With the boom the main issue with that is that the wear washer had gone, this meant that the boom was no longer at 90° to the fitting on the boom but was resting at an odd angle, to investigate further it meant that we had to remove a split pin that was keeping the boom on and clean up the fittings. Once the goose neck fittings were cleaned up it was clear to see that the fitting was badly worn as the hole that the pin went through was no longer circular but was oval. This meant that we would have to order the part, but in the mean time, it would be a case of cleaning everything and fitting washers to mitigate the wear in the mean time.

Once the goose neck was sorted out as much as we could, it was simply a case of putting the boom back on and then the sails. Seeing as we had kept the battens in the sails for this drop it was a much easier task putting the sails back up. We did clean the slugs and put PTFE spray onto the slugs, because we have found that this really helps with the raising and lowering of the sail as it reduces friction.

Celebrity man hunt

One of the things that we were asked to do while we were in Liverpool was to take part in Celebrity man hunt. We were just to be background but we were, along with others to use our dingies to confuse the trackers. So the first task of the day was to get the dingy prepared so that we could join the others who were taking part.

Once at the meet we had to do a short video, saying our name, our telephone number and giving permission for our image to be in the program. Once that was done, Beverley who was to be skipper for the day went off to a briefing meeting. Initially we were pegged for one of the decoy boats, but the boat that was to be the one taking the celebrities did not have the proper paperwork while we did, so with Beverley taking the two celebrities plus the lady who was the film crew, Salty Sausage was full so I was redeployed to one on the decoy boats. As a decoy boat, our boat had to go to a ladder which we had to climb then run away from the top. Climbing the ladder was fine, but my running has much to be desired and the skipper of my boat kept shouting at me 'Run, forest, run'

There was lots of other people taking part, so I collected some of their stories. Some went all the way to Albert dock in the dingy, some went to other walls in and around the marina, while Beverley took the celebrities on their little jaunt. So Beverley took the celebrities and milled around with the other boats so that it was difficult to tell which boat held the celebrities. She then has to take them to a ladder which they had to climb. When they saw the ladder they were not in favour of climbing the ladder but they did it and it went well enough as far as Beverley could see.

Changing the oil and diesel filters

Seeing as we were in Liverpool and we had changed the oil in the sail drive leg, we took the opportunity to change out the main engine oill, as well as the oil and diesel filters. Changing the filters has to be done on a regular basis, with the oil filters needing to be changed on a more regular basis. With Salty Lass we do it in a particular order purely because it make the most sense to us.

• Diesel filters
• Make sure that you turn off the diesel supply at the start of the process and turn it back on at the end.
• Use a jug or bowl below your main diesel filter to catch any diesel.
• Check your filters, because we use fuel set, ours are usually clean which is always good news
• Prime your fuel so that you know that diesel is flowing
• Check everything is working fine by running your engine
• Oil filters
• Warm the oil by running the engine.
• Use a thin tube down the dipstick rather than the official outlet for removing the oil as it is a cleaner method for extracting the fuel. In addition to that it can be difficult to put the cap back onto the tube.
• We put a little bit of clean oil into the engine after wards to clean the bottom of the engine as much as we can
• We have tried several method for trying to remove the oil filter cleanly and all have failed, so now we just let the oil drain into the sump and clean it out afterwards
• Impeller
• Just make sure that you get the right one because with one type of impeller it is jus 0.2mm difference in size, but it is enougth for the smaller one to not fit, so keep an old one as a spare

With all the checks done on the engine it was at last time to drop the lines and go. So at last we were on our way to the Isle of Man