Getting closer
Open Blue
Tim & Manfreda Penfold
Wed 29 Feb 2012 12:43
Well time is marching on and we are getting closer and closer to the start of our trip!
I have now finished work and if things were going to plan I should be out in Greece working on the boat. However, I have been quite ill with a chest infection that refuses to get better. After 2 rounds of antibiotics, 1 course of steroids and a chest x-ray, I am now on a concoction of 2 more types of antibiotics and a host of vitimins and supplements. Hopefully this will work and I'll be fit to travel out next week to get started.
In the meantime arrangements at home have been progressing, with the London house being rented to the first people who saw it and leaving drinks and birthday parties being arranged by Freddie.
The main problem with me not having visited the boat yet is that I have not been able to measure all the batteries and order replacements. When we were on Open Blue in October we had a fair amount of trouble with the batteries, and given that they are all at least 6 years old and she had been left unattended for more than 2 years, it's not really surprising that they would be past their prime. So I have decided to replace all the batteries on the boat for new ones before we start, to make sure we have no further issues. There are 12 batteries on board, roughly 1200Ah worth, so this is a fairly big investment, approx £100 each at UK prices. I plan to buy them in the UK and drive down in a van with my brother to deliver them and a whole load more kit including new dinghy, new anchor, windsurfing kit, boxes of books, toys and tools, ect. All the stuff we can't take by plane. This should save a fair amount of cash as anything to do with boats seems to be twice the price in Greece.
The only other decision that remains un-made at the moment is whether to fit a water maker or not. This is a very expensive piece of kit and could be judged as a luxury, but not having one means having to fill the water tank every 3-4 days and being extra frugal with fresh water all the time. I am leaning towards having one, but need to get on board and measure up to make sure we have room to install one before I go crazy and order it.
Hopefully the change of position in this post will fix the map on the homepage of the blog, Freddie has been complaining about it being ugly and not making sense at the moment.
Here's a picture of the girls saying good-bye to OpenBlue when we left in October, hopefully when I finally get back out there I will find her as we left her!
Tim
