Flippers or a worldradio? Special price for you my friend!

Sometimes I think "what the heck am I doing?!", but as often I think "can´t wait". So I guess I can´t wait to do what the heck I´m going to do...

We´ve set the date for departure to the beginning of july, but as we already changed it a dozen times and the to do list Hampus wrote in reality is as twice as long I´m not so sure. I hope we know when we´ve done the least of the most we´ve got to do. That will be good for our buget too, somehow it´s not as good as we thought it was. (On bad days we ask ourselves if it´s even possible.) Tomorrow there´s a marin yardsale at the sailingclub and we hope to raise some money to spend on other marinestuff. So if you e.g. need an oven, a vhf, flippers or a worldradio, see you there!

On the wishlist there´s, among other things, a Rutland 913 windcharger (to be mounted in the mizzen mast) and something to supplement it with, a tow generator perhaps, there´s no room for solar power. We´ll see, it´s expensive and I dare guess we´re not going to find it at the yardsale.

It´s about now I realise why most people start planning for a trip like this more than six months before departure. But hey, we´re not like most people, whatever that means...

With two months until departure,
Lotta

Another short update

We spent all night yesterday trying to finish the new (modified) instrument panel. We got rid of the old perkins engine panel and mounted the very nice looking VDO-instruments directly in a varnished teak board. We also made a great and I mean GREAT bargain on two Raymarine ST60 instruments, one speed log and one echo sounder. They are also mounted in the teak board. We moved the plotter from the instrument panel to the wheel piedestal and moved the compass from the piedestal to the instrument panel (you don't have to push any buttons on the compass).

Someone asked me a few months ago, how the refit was coming along. I thought "what refit? We're just fixing a few small things". Well, I guess it turned out to be a refit after all. This far we've, in no particular order

• 
  Repaired the main mast
• Installed a plotter, new VHF, NAVTEX, newish autopilot
• Rewired large portion of the electrical system
• Changed calorifier
• Installed a new propane stove with oven
• Cleaned, cleaned and cleaned
• Installed a holding tank for the forward head
• Done minor repairs on the engine
• And a few smaller things

What's still left is:

• Having a new mizzen sewed
• Changing all of the standing rigging
• Finnishing the instrument panel and actually installing the transducers for the new instruments
• Repair the bow sprit that we (I) dented in Germany a year ago
• Repair the dinghy
• Redo the entire propane installation
• Antifoull
• Change water tap in galley
• Change thru hulls
• Change winches and fit new cleats on the main mast
• Modify the bowroller to fit the new anchor
• Stop 1000 water leaks around portholes, deck hatches and sheet travellers
• Make sure the cabin sole can't go airborne
• Build shelves in the wardrobe
• Adjust the oven installation
• Service the engine
• Clean the diesel tanks
• Varnish, varnish and varnish
• Make storm hatches for the "panoramic" windows in the aft cabin
• Install the windvane
• Prepare for an SSB installation. The SSB is high on our wish list now, if only we can afford it
• Have all the paper work ready
• Have our shots for yellow fever and what not

And we're supposed to sail by early June... Obviously, some of the things can and will be done along the way, we'll just have to focus on the most important things. If EVERYTHING has to be done prior to departure, we'll never leave.

/Hampus & Lotta, in the middle of EVERYTHING