Well we left work one month ago and we have now become more organised.  We have divided our ‘to do’ list into the following categories in no particular order:

            Engine

            Electrical

            Gas installation

            Electronics

            Plumbing

            Top side deck

            Hull

            Mechanical

            Maintenance and damage control

            Rigging

            Medical provisions

            Medical course

            Comfort and personal safety

            Food and drink

            Safety

            Communications

            Radio certificate and license

            Organizing home and pets

            Children friends and family

            Passports, insurances, visas

Paul Bennett who is signed up for the voyage has flown our twice and worked flat out for nearly three weeks which has been an enormous help.

We have renewed all our passports, undertaken a one week medical course earlier in the year and gained our medical certificates which allows us a Category A medical kit on board which we feel is necessary for the trip.

We also both took our long range radio telephone operator’s certificates – although compulsory for at least one of us we felt safer both having the knowledge.

Most of the required and recommended injections and vaccinations have been administered plus boosters including yellow fever, rabies, hepatitis A and B, polio, tetanus and diphtheria.  We found it easier to go to Trailfinders in High Street Kensington on our last visit to England rather than find a Tropical Disease Centre in Granada!

Meanwhile Paul has made a new cockpit table from solid teak and a new saloon table which doubles as a bed.  He has stripped all the woodwork inside and re varnished it and renewed all the locker lids on the deck. 

The old metal holding tanks (least said about them the better) have been removed and new plastic ones fitted in their place.  Also an extra fuel tank has been squeezed in to the bilge area of the galley as we have been told to expect some prolonged motoring.

We bought a 4.5 kilowatt generator and fitted it to the rear cabin with capability to run off any one of the three fuel tanks and talking of fuel tanks – we have two 22 year old originals under the seating area of the saloon which are made of 5mm thick black iron!  With only one inspection hatch each it was impossible to see around the baffles.  This week we have completely drained both tanks and found at least an inch of chocolate brown sludge and debris on the bottom of both!!  7 new inspection hatches have been ground out and what a horrible job it has all been.  All that muck and we have been using ‘Soltron’ for 7 years.  Having said that the tanks have probably been in that state for most of their life.

New cooker, double domestic sink, microwave and washing machine all fitted and working.  Mike our marine electrician has rewired the whole boat with particular attention to the 7 lorry batteries under our bunk.

The Hydrovane self steering equipment arrived and is fitted and all the stainless steel guard rails cleaned up and shiny on deck.

Vic, our son, has rubbed down the boom and Paul Bennet designed an engineering masterpiece to lift the boom up a further six inches to clear our heads.

On the down side, the folding steering wheel from Lewmar arrived but was the wrong model!  To get the correct one seems a very protracted story.

The brand new Northstar chart plotter ceased functioning immediately – we returned it to their ‘world wide servicing’ agents in UK who now refuse to do anything about it because it was bought from an American source which mysteriously isn’t covered by their ‘world wide servicing agents’ even though it says it is??!!  More aggregation…..

The guard rails were removed a month ago and given to a local specialist.  Apparently his machine is broken so he sub contracted to a company in Barcelona who now say their machine is also broken.  We eventually had them returned, have given them to another company and have not heard back from them since……

Both loos needed an overhaul and new pump systems and we have stripped the old system to use for spares.  We have re tiled both bathrooms and replaced the old sinks, taps and shower heads.

The SSB has been bought and fitted and the back stays insulated.

All the internal lockers have been cleaned out and ‘dambolined’ with waterproof paint.

All this in 38º which is hot hot hot with no air conditioning!!