Preparations - Part 5

Hello

Been neglecting the blog again!

I wrote a large piece and cannot find the article and did not publish at the time. Here we go again….

Time moves inexorably forwards and we are now at the 13th March. 3 more weeks before leaving work and the same time before Nadezhda returns to the water.

My dad and I have been re-doing the Navigation Station that involves my dad measuring-up and making the new unit and me trying to screw it in! Actually there seems to be more to it than that…..The wiring needed to be re-worked and unworkable GPS connectors cut, spliced and re-connected to get the chartplotter, laptop and VHF radio all talking together. No sooner had we got the whole area apart (with wires everywhere) and put back together than we had to undo the whole lot because we needed spare coils of wire to extend the aerials in preparation for the new stainless steel superstructure that is due for the back of the boat (god willing!).

Yes. It took 3 weekends.

Add to this the fact that the Gas man who replaced the gas hoses found that the cooker had a leak (not surprising). Moodys boatyard then took it upon themselves to remove the cooker ready for refurbishment and charge me for it. I managed to stop them and bought and fitted a new one since the original manufacturers went out of business years ago. Another big wedge out of our budget!

The London boat show was on in January where I managed to make my peace with Fliss by buying her Christmas present… a pair of polarising sunglasses so she can see the dangerous coral heads when entering tropical anchorages. Good shout, she was happy and I will feel more comfortable!*&

We also bought a second-hand Iridium phone chip with 2996 minutes remaining and the phone came free! Good deal and we are now set-up with all we need for communications. We have SSB receive, long-range WIFI, cellular to buy in each country and Satellite phone comms.

The bimini-man did not do iron-work to the back of the boat but the man who bought my engine recommended a chap who did good work at reasonable prices. He has been very good so far but recently failed to deliver to timescales….let’s hope. In the meantime, bimini-man says that delivery is now mid-May and I cannot get measurements until iron-work is completed. Things are getting a bit tight on timescales.

A bit of saving grace is that I spoke to the boatyard about outstanding work. They said that they were up against time regarding all the work they have outstanding (not just me). I suggested that I can defer launch as long as they don’t charge any more storage fees. At the moment this looks to be a runner and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a couple of more weeks on dry-land
There is plenty more that I have now forgotten and plenty more to do. Hope to be more diligent in my updates in future….