 After fitting the new rudder and fixing the leaks in the quarter berth, we had a week of lots of wind and rain. So we used the time to buy equipment and supplies that we need. This included: - Depth Sounder - AIS (Automatic Identification System) receiver - Antenna for AIS and VHF radio - SSB (single-sideband) receiver - Garmin Bluechart NW Atlantic - Garmin Bluechart Caribbean - Storm jib - Working jib - Collar for Hydrovane - Bilge pump and flat hose - Gas bottle and spare gas bottles for cooking - Acetal sheaves for the mast - Blocks for the inner forestay - Car charger adapters, wires, DC power plugs and DC converters so that we are able to use and charge our laptop, handheld vacuum and bilge pump. These will be charged from the batteries when we are at sea - 16kg anchor - Anchor shackle - High load block for the inner forestay - Sail repair kit - Day shapes - Offshore flare pack - 5mm dyneema for different uses/spare line - Sheaves for mainsheet traveller (x2) - Diverter valve for the heads pump to acts as a bilge pump - Radar reflector - Bullseye for the mainsheet traveller as ours is currently broken (1 pair) - 'Y' connector to connect the main water tank and spare water tank for filling up - Tethers for each of our lifejackets when we are up on deck - Nuts for chainplates - Nuts and bolts for our old fairleads - 'Q' flag - All of the flags of the countries we are going to visit, so we can display them each time we enter a new country - Drogue (sea anchor) - Butane gas for soldering iron - Primary fuel filters (FF167) (x6) - Spares kit for our Beta 20 engine: fuel filter, oil filter, impeller kit, poly v belt, engine anode, 40 amp fuse For our outboard we got the following: - Suzuki propellor and pin - Gear oil - Spark plug and impeller - Wire brush and scraper After the week of wet and windy weather, we had an amazing heatwave, which stayed with us for about a week or so. It made such a difference working on our boat. With glorious sunshine and hot temperatures, everyone was now working in shorts and T-shirts. It felt like everyone was getting ready for summer, ready to head out into the water, if they hadn't already. Lots of new people had arrived at the marina over the last few months. They had come from different marinas, or had come back from their travels or were in the middle of their travels right now. With the beautiful weather, we'd been having BBQs in the evenings. A great excuse to have a little break and get to know new people. One of the days got so hot, 33 degrees, Mattis and I went to the beach and ran straight into the sea to cool down. It felt like we were away already! We're looking forward to more days like that, sun, sea and sand. During the week of sunshine and clear blue skies we: - Mattis made backing pads for the transom and installed our Hydrovane - Took our new Highfield 2 metre dinghy out for a spin. It is much lighter than our previous dinghy, which was 60cm longer. It was much heavier and too big for us. The outboard for our new dinghy ceased to work after just a few minutes, so we rowed it instead. We bought a new spark plug and impeller so we could service it properly before taking it out again. Another thing that helped was clearing the filter, of which one of the four holes was blocked - We cut back all of the excess sealant on the rebedded cockpit teak, sanded down and washed down the whole cockpit - Neatened up the hatches, cut back the excess black sealant - We cut out and rivetted in a 'tang' so that we can attach an inner forestay - Mattis took out all of the linings in the forepeak and grinded back the fibreglass to create a 'key'. This was so that he could fibreglass in one of our old chainplates to the deck, which will be used to secure our inner forestay - Solar panel has been installed by making a wooden frame for it. The frame can be rotated securely to maximise sun exposure - Secured the outboard to the pulpit for when we are not using it - Mended the upholstery in the saloon - Compounded and waxed the cockpit - We did a food shop for all of our provisions - Collected our new boom - Secured our danbuoy to the pulpit - Put Jingo's name on the hull We decided to sell most of the sails that came with Jingo as we were getting a new mainsail, genoa, storm jib and working jib. We decided to sell our Ghoster, No 2 genoa and another genoa. We also decided to sell our 11kg CQR anchor, which came with Jingo and we now have a 15kg Rocna and a spare 16kg anchor. Jobs still to do - Install additional water tank - Plumb sink - Refit the cupboard back into the heads - Collect: mainsail, genoa, storm jib, working jib, binoculars, pick up newly serviced liferaft, offshore flare pack and all supplies that we ordered from "Jimmy Green" - Get back in the water - Install my DAB car stereo to replace the stereo we already have (maybe keep as a spare) - Set sail Hydrovane Mattis installed our Hydrovane, he made two backing pads incorporating the top backing pad to fit the newly made taff rail. We have now secured our danbuoy, AIS antenna, solar panel, outboard and Hydrovane to the pulpit. Below are photos from the last few weeks including; work on the newly rebedded teak in the cockpit, steam cleaning the companionway, old sheaves and new acetal sheaves for the mast, neatening up of the hatches removing excess sealant, trying out our new dinghy and outboard, heading down to the beach and letting ourselves have a few hours off, going up the mast and fitting our new inner forestay, selling our unwanted sails, fibreglassing in the forepeak to fit a chainplate on the deck, compounding and waxing the cockpit, making upholstery, the work continues....... Provisions We recently stocked up and bought everything we think we might need for our journey. We'll see how far it'll take us...
....as well as what we already have i.e. cooking oil, spices, condiments, drinks, water, fresh fruit and vegetables.  We have now updated our Portfolio Page, take a look!
We have been learning along the way that you can easily spend all of your time and money buying equipment, updating essentials, making sure your boat is seaworthy and never really be ready to go. There is continual maintenance, but that is half the fun! We've also been learning that sometimes when you have a set date in mind for getting work done or setting sail, it's very rarely the case. For example, having new rigging made or getting a new boom altered can take weeks or even months to be completed. And it's not always waiting on one person to do their job. Sometimes, that person who is doing the work/labour is waiting on someone else to do their job first. We, I say we (Mattis is a boatbuilder), I have learned very quickly that this is the nature of boat life and boat building. Originally, we were hoping to set sail by the end of May. That came round so quickly, especially after finding more things to fix, update, buy, to make sure everything is safe and secure. Having said that, we've both felt it's been a great way for us to get to know our boat inside and out before setting off. We have done everything we can possibly think of, for now. We have been working hard on Jingo over the past year and a half and now our boat seaworthy for the great journeys ahead. We've made sure we have all of the spares, food, supplies, medical equipment that we need and more. Next week we are going back in the water and we'll have a few 'shake downs', sailing Jingo with our new equipment, sails, boom, Hydrovane, before leaving for Ireland in the next week or so.....
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