No longer unbearably cold! And thoughts on economy.

I think that spring might be here! We've been able to work on Ingeborg this weekend. We ripped out the old autopilot anno 1979 and installed a "new" one. I bet it's no older than 15 years! It's an Autohelm 6000 and we got it for free! We hooked it up to the old Robertson hydraulic pump and it worked. Of course, I got the cables wrong, there were two ways of connecting them and Murphy, as usual, couldn't mind his own business. I wasn't sure wich side was wich on the pump so now it steers to port when it should go to starboard, but it's an easy fix. The reason we changed pilots is that the old Robertson had a broken compass and since we got this one for free it was clearly cheaper than buying a new compass. Comparing the two, the Robertson is a Rolls Royce and the Autohelm is a Volvo, but a newer Volvo. We're also making a new instrument board and with half the stuff ripped out of the old one and all the tools lying around down below Ingeborg looks like a war zone.

We've had no luck in selling the apartment. We'll give it a few more weeks then we'll try to sub let it. I hope the the entire project doesn't fall with the apartment... I'm a bit worried.

We also have to order a new mizzen and it won't be delivered until the end of June and we had hoped to be away by the beginning of that month. Doesn't matter though, there's no rush, we're just eager.

With all the things we hadn't forseen, but should have, costs are piling up. There's the mizzen, the new standing rig and a bunch of other things. We had hoped to leave with at least 200.000 SEK ($27.000) on the bank account and live off it for at least 18 months. I actually don't know how we're going to reach that amount but we'll go with what we've got and see how far we get. Maybe working along the way is an option? I work with marine electronics and navigation equipment so it might not be impossible... Any advice, short of selling organs on e-bay, on how to put an extra $ in the wallet while sailing is apreciated.

/Hampus

Where to draw the line?

Well, where do you draw the line? How much stuff do you buy and how many spares do you bring? Every little thing we buy will shorten our potential time away. It's easy to focus on all the things that you need, instead of trying to focus on how little you need. Do we really need all the things that we think we need now? Isn't it better to leave with less than you think you need and buy it along the way if you find that you miss it? A lot of the stuff that is on the wish/need/want list are things that I've done well without for many years and 1000's of miles. I think I'll post the list here some time...

And regarding spare parts. What really sucks about them is that you always need the one thing that you didn't get. So why get any at all?

We just get scared looking at the sum at the bottom of our list. Of course the boat has to be in a sound condition. But apart from that what do we actually need, to sailg away? I guess that's a question to you readers. All 7 of you :)

/Me in my most optimistic and cheerful mood