Nearly Splash Time......

..... though you wouldn't think by looking at the state of her that we will be living on Laurin in less than 2 months! 

Bru is still working hard on electrics and some carpentry as well as trying to find time and fair weather opportunity to clean Laurin's topsides. We've spent the past few weeks trying to complete the jobs that either must be done before launch (like changing the anode), or are easier to do in the yard next to Bru's container full of woodworking tools!


So the new chartplotter is in, our decision to go for the Raymarine es7 rather than a larger more expensive 9" screen meant that Bru has been able to fit it in our "dashboard" rather than having it on a removable mount which frees up space for an "on deck" chart table. Autopilot drive unit has been repaired and the autopilot is now linked up to our new chartplotter which seems way too "fancy" for Patrick. Next steps are wiring in all the new lights and usb sockets.



Bru has been busy making a table top for the sink between the kids bunk so that they have another "desk" for school work and play. He's also making us a bookshelf out of the now redundant speaker covers on the forward bulkhead. We've been busy making shelves for the hanging locker as these will allow us to make better use of the space available with the top shelf having straps to store and fasten down our printer which I think will be very useful for boatschool even if we can only use it when we have 240V power. We've also made inserts for some of the other lockers to help with organisation and storage.


Patrick has fitted 1 of 3 new vents to improve air flow through the boat. This first one vents into the kids cabin and handily fits over a hole left in the deck from the old hooter and deck light switch.

We've also bought one usb powered fan from ebay to have a look at. Seems quite useful as it charges from a USB socket but also has an internal battery so can be used independent of 12V power if we want it somewhere away from a power supply. It comes with  stand or a clip that we can use to clip it onto our bookshelves etc. Think we'll be buying a few more!



During this time we also attending a cruising association seminar on sailing in the Med which was held at cruising association house at Limehouse. Luckily our good friend Lisa lives aboard at Limehouse so looked after the kids leaving us free to concentrate on all the good information provided while the kids had a whale of a time. We were reminded of the need for a plank to act as a passerelle, as well as the need for adequate sun shade and fly screens. Luckily for us we had a fortuitous find next to a skip at the children's school. We spotted an old school bench that we thought might make a rather nice passerelle and a quick chat with the deputy head and it was ours. We did get a few funny looks though carrying it home through the park!

 Quickly tied it to the roof of the Land Rover before taking it up to the boat. Just need to decide now what length to cut it to.

So just one week to go until the school holidays. Kids will be up north for the first week so I can get on with clearing the house some more and then we will go get AJ, Esme and their 3 cousins to come down to Essex for a week, hopefully spending most of it afloat on Laurin. We've spent the past couple of weekends encouraging the kids to make piles of toys to go on the boat and take to Nana's for safekeeping.  The remainder will be sold or given away. Hopefully I can do some of this while they are up north.... car boot sale planned for next Sunday!

I also said a sad goodbye to my boss this week as I have completed my last teaching session and he is on holiday for the next couple of weeks before moving into a new role. I was surprised at how much this affected me given that this is a small sessional role that I have only been in since September really. On the plus side I am not resigning but taking a leave of absence so there is hopefully a route back in when we return.

Not quite the way we planned!

So the plan for February half term was to meet Mum and Dad half way up the A1 and transfer the kids so they could have some northern family time while we decorated the bathroom and got a few more jobs done on Laurin. A guy was coming to buy our old anchor chain from us on Sunday and the surveyor was due Monday.  Well, we only got as far as Cambridge before Landy started to make a horrible noise. Patrick wound the window down to try to hear better and the window electrics promptly failed leaving us with a near gale blowing through the open window, however this was quickly overshadowed by Landy losing power and us gratefully managing to limp off the A1 and into a lay-by. Called the RAC and we were actually pleased when the operator said that it would be about an hour before they could get to us... that would possibly enable Mum and Dad to drive the extra distance to pick the kids up. Eventually RAC called to say they were sending a low loader without sending a diagnostics guy first as they were pretty sure they couldn't fix it on the roadside. Mum and Dad arrived just as Landy was loaded onto the truck and we did a very quick handover of kids before heading back south. (Suppose it's one way to reduce the diesel bill). With Land Rover delivered to our lovely mechanic Tim we were now without transport. Time to reevaluate the week's plans! We soon hatched a plan to get the bus and train to Laurin on Sunday then stay on Bru's boat Pagan before heading home after the surveyor's visit on Monday. We spent the rest of Saturday test driving my work shopping trolley in order to pick up decorating supplies for later in the week. Patrick was decidedly unimpressed with the spotty trolley and has insisted on plain black if we buy one for Laurin!

We looked even more silly Sunday morning when we loaded the trolley, a rucksack and 3 two metre lengths of wood onto the bus and train but we needed to make best use of our child free time. Over the couple of days we fitted the new prop protector as well as making progress on 3 new shelves and refitting the cupboard door in the heads. We also spent a lot of time talking to the surveyor getting as much value out of his expertise as possible. Happily he gave Laurin a clean bill of health with just a couple of advisory items for us to address if we choose. Bru gave us a lift home and we spent the next couple of days giving the bathroom a new coat of paint and researching travel insurance as well as planning out what what we need to do when over the remaining 3 months. We were then very relieved to hear from Tim that Landy just needed an injector changing and would be home in time for the run up north at the weekend to retrieve kids.

Time is a ticking!

Reality is starting to hit as February half term approaches. Kids are being packed off to grandparents to give us some child free time to work on preparations. My plans to spend all week working on the house have been scuppered by Patrick not being able to carry over as many holiday days as we'd hoped and having to take them next week too. He votes for spending time on Laurin so we'll be doing a bit of both.


The electronics ordered at the boatshow have arrived and Bru has fitted the new wheel pilot drive. The enforced choice of the 7" plotter has meant that it actually fits in the panel to port of the speed, depth and wind instruments. This was an unexpected bonus as it leaves more space under the sprayhood for a kind of mini, on deck, chart table. As Bru was doing his magic we attacked some woodworking jobs, fitting a shelf for the printer, making a mount for the kedge anchor to sit on the back of the boat, and various other little jobs. The new sprayhood and stackpack are now ready, just waiting for tabs to be put on the sprayhood to attach our new solar panel to and we also got our outboard repaired and serviced with a remarkably quick turnaround by Mr Engines Dunn.

Next week we've got a surveyor coming to do an insurance survey as it will be due while we are away, and a tonnage survey so we can get part 1 registration as our SSR registration is no longer suitable due to the length of time we will be out of the country. Guess the first job this weekend will be to have a tidy up then!

Boat Show and Banks

So Thursday Bru, Patrick and I had a long day at the London Boat Show. Bru had some electronic bits and pieces that he wanted so we were hopeful that we could get a good deal by combining our order. In the end there weren't really any deals to be had other than a measly 1% discount on web prices on electronics, but we saved the cost of postage. We decided on the Raymarine eS7 Multi Function Display with both touchscreen and keypad control over either the 7 or 9 inch A-series MFD's. The A7 was discounted as it didn't support NMEA 0183 which we needed to be able to connect it to our AIS (the system that allows us to view large ships on our chartplotter). We then couldn't justify an additional £300 for the larger screen when we also have the iPad as backup navigation which can connect to the eS7 via wifi and be used as a second larger screen.

We also wanted to find a good deal on the Rocna 15 anchor (as well as finalising this choice over the 20kg one). After seeing the Rocna 20 in the flesh and also talking to the nice people on the Rocna stand we were sold on the 15kg version. The Rocna people sent us over to the other side of the Boat Show to speak with Mark Nunn of Seamark Nunn as they are our nearest supplier. On talking with Mark he matched Jimmy Green's online price and offered free delivery if we were prepared to wait until they had a job in Burnham which was a bit of a result as Jimmy Green were quoting £65 for delivery of the anchor and 80m of 8mm chain.

Other than that we joined the Cruising association with 25% discount thanks to mentioning that we knew Lisa Pini, and also bought some First Aid and Diesel Engine diagnostic quick reference cards that seemed useful, and forgot to go back to the diablo toasted sandwich maker stand which probably was for the best.

Finally the highlight of the day for me was meeting Kass Schmitt who I had met via the Facebook Group "Women Who Sail". She now owns the boat that Patrick and I met on and is currentlypreparing for the 2017 OSTAR race, 21 days and 3,000 miles non-stop and alone across the North Atlantic. https://sailingwithzest.com/
Hopefully we will get the chance to take Kass up on her offer of a sail on Zest before we leave in the summer.

A disproportionate amount of time was spent at the weekend sitting in Metro Bank opening new bank accounts in readiness for the trip as they are the only UK bank that doesn't charge fee's on either cash withdrawals or purchases in Europe. The bank was really child friendly and every penny counts over the next two years but it was a painful 2.5 hours which actually took out most of the day once we'd made the obligitary visit to Toys R Us as a reward to the kids for being so patient. Luckily they had vouchers from Christmas and chose very small toys so everybody came home happy.

Ship's Stores

This weekend was mainly about checking we were ready to negotiate deals at the London Boat Show, lightly abrading Laurin's coppercoated bottom, and raiding Asda for cheap ships stores.

We made a cardboard template of Rocna 15kg and 20kg anchors to check that they would fit on the front of the boat. The 20kg looked huge and the bill (or tip) of the anchor almost touched the bow. The 15kg anchor had a little more space to spare and is the recommended weight for our boat, I'd just been a bit cautious as our current CQR copy is 20kg. We also made the decision to move from 10mm chain to 8mm so that we could fit more in as 80m of chain seems to be recommended for the parts of the Med we are heading for.

I also measured the distance between the helm and the spot underneath the sprayhood reserved for our new chartplotter.... 2 metres. The plan is to have a look at both 9 and 7 inch Raymarine MFD's at the boatshow and make a final decision.

Finally we made the decision to replace the entire wheel drive of our autopilot as Bru was unsure of how much of the insides were damaged (probably as a result of kids climbing on it.... ooops!). The sum total of the parts plus labour to repair it may well exceed the price of the new assembly so it seemed sensible to replace the whole lot.

On the boat we are rather partial to Heinz tinned ravioli as a quick hot meal on the go. It's also a cheap feed that we can store for a long time, particularly when Asda have it on offer at 50p per tin. Beans and Sausages in a tin are also something that both the adult and younger crew members enjoy occasionally so we stocked up on those too! We did get a few strange looks though!

2017 - Happy New Year

So as we listened to Big Ben chime midnight on the TV at Lizzy's house as we've done for as many years as the kids can remember it hit us that this is THE year we've been planning for. This is the year we will move aboard our boat Laurin and take her to the Mediterranean for a two year adventure. It's all getting a bit real!

Laurin is currently out of the water for the last of a steady stream of upgrades and it never ceases to amaze me how our family is happiest when we are with out boat.... even in cold damp weather when she's not even on the water. For the past month we've been fitting new hatches while the kids ride their bikes in the boatyard, chill out in Landy with an iPad, or hassle our good friend Bru on his boat Pagan.

Initially we weren't sure if we would refurbish or replace the hatches as they seemed really solid with just crazing to the plastic; but then parts of the castings started to break and I became worried about not being able to open them from the outside to extract the kids from their cabin in the event of an engine or galley fire. They were a tricky size to replace but the lovely people at Houdini made us some aluminium plates so we could fit new moonlight hatches. These let so much more light in than the old ones. We were very pleased to finish this as it was the last major job (despite sticking two of the plates down the wrong way round and having to cope with the gloopy sealant which appeared to be a cross between blue tack and candy floss which got everywhere).

Still lots to do both on Laurin, and clearing the house ready to be rented out. Facebook friends who are one year ahead of us told us the last month before departure is the worst.... I'm already feeling the pressure of all there is to do. Roll on June when we will be on our way.