..... 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!
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.
