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London is a world-class city with modern architecture, a world financial center, and easy-to-see history going back more than two thousand years. We got a taste of it all on a clear day shortly after arriving into St. Katharine Docks. We started with the fabulous views from The Shard, completed in 2012, and stepped back…

Over a decade ago, we read a magazine article about a couple who moored their boat at St. Katharine Docks over the winter and it captivated us—we’ve been wanting to come here ever since. From Hermitage Community Moorings, we made a short run upriver and passed through the lock into St. Katherine Docks. It was…

For the 207nm run from Southampton to London, we were planning to stop for the night in Queenborough off the mouth of the Thames before continuing to London the following morning. This would avoid a night running up the Thames. But we made much better time than expected, arriving at the Thames mid-morning, so continued…

Prior to the thirty-one days in Southampton, the longest time we’d ever been in the yard was ten days. During our month-long Southampton yard trip we completed three major projects: replacing the muffler, rebuilding the crane, and replacing the cutlass bearings on the rudder shaft and the wing and main propeller shafts. We also completed…

The final major project we completed at Saxon Wharf in Southampton was replacing the cutlass bearings on the rudder shaft and the wing and main propeller shafts. On inspection after removing the cutlass bearing, our main propeller shaft was badly corroded with some of the pits running quite deep, so we opted to replace it…

A second major project that we completed while in the yard at Southampton was to rebuild our crane. It was in remarkably poor condition. The ram-to-extension bolts were siezed due to lack of Tuff-Gel application on the stainless screws in the aluminum casting; the linear winch had worn away all its bearing material, damaging the…

While in Brisbane, Australia in 2014 we installed a Heatstrip patio heater and just love it. A key advantage of the Heatstrip is a nice, even warmth with no red glow. You can’t tell it’s on and it doesn’t change the lighting at night. Spitfire appreciates the heater too, and usually finds a spot underneath…

We had a long list of projects to complete during our Southampton haulout at Saxon Wharf. One of the bigger jobs was to replace the muffler. Our old one turned out to not be in bad shape, and might have gone a few more years. But we couldn’t really know the state of the muffler…

We run Dirona like a small apartment with little regard for power consumption, power load or power source. Right now we are moored at St. Katharine Docks in London plugged into 32A/50Hz power. But we run the same way whether we are plugged into 50A/60Hz power in the US or if we were anchored off…

Boats have been damaged or destroyed during lift operations, so we’re always nervous whenever we haul Dirona out. We were impressed with the care Saxon Wharf took in the lift, including asking for exterior hull photos to could assess where to place the lifting straps. The operation went smoothly and by mid-morning we were safely…