Ready, steady

Hanging out in the West Harbour

Are you ever truly ready? Probably not, but we are getting to the stage of being ready enough. We've been beavering away at home improvements. It has been a good thing living on the boat for almost four weeks before departure, getting used to the new paraffin cooker, stowing and tweaking things.

The paraffin heater and Jim's improvised tarpaulin vestibule have seen a lot of action. Lots of rain can be trying on a small boat, even with heating! It's sometimes been a struggle to get the washing dry.

Since we've only taken Fettler out of the harbour four times since launching in April (yes, the weather has been that bad), we decided to slip the vessel this morning for cleaning and antifouling - and it was badly needed.

Impressive barnacle growth in only three months

Extra coat of antifouling in not the best working position

And presto: a clean hull! Just the thing for the start of the voyage.

Departure next week looks distinctly possible. First port Whitby or so we intend.

Overload

The dawn of a new era (East Harbour, 0400, 03-06-11).

Life is now settling down again aboard Fettler, having passed through the traumatic period of getting out of the flat and on to the boat.

We moved aboard on the 2nd of June, the first of two summer days we've had here so far.  The boat of course was stuffed absolutely full with all the things we thought could be useful on a long voyage through varied climactic conditions.

It was immediately obvious that quite a bit of it would simply have to go and we spent the following week sorting through most everything aboard, stowing the essential items carefully away and jettisoning the rest. Not fun. Clothing we had kept to a minimum anyway but each tool, spare, rope and sail had to be weighed in the balance before deciding yay or nay. All the soft stuff, clothes and bedding, was stuffed into compression sacks and placed in dry bags. Compact and secure. Sleeping bags - too bulky, too difficult to launder, so hello duvet. On and on ad nauseam.

Once everything was stowed in reasonable order we could move on to finishing jobs and installing the last bit of equipment. The new stove required some further modification but is now performing very well. The first meal prepared in the new pressure cooker was a very welcome gift of mackerel from one of our fishing friends (an important perk of living in the harbour).

New VHF AIS, tidied wiring!

Old, redundant wiring, cleared out after much disruption in tracing it.

New solar trickle charger, keeping the start battery topped up.

Vanes have been added to the flue pipe of the paraffin heater, to reclaim some of the heat otherwise lost up the lum. Actually, despite it being 'summer' the heater has seen a fair bit of action during the unseasonably cold and windy days and nights we've been treated to. The temperature in the cabin has been as low as 11C in the morning but the good old Taylor's heater soon warms things up nicely.

It hasn't all been hard grafting, fortunately. The harbour scene is very sociable and we've had plenty of visitors to relax awhile with.

Departure is not yet imminent as other issues will keep us tied down for a week or two yet but now the more enjoyable phase begins as we finish off the preparations at a civilized pace and rest a little for the coming task.

Eider ducklings - would you steal the down from their nest?