Isn’t technology great. We’re waiting for the strong SW winds to abate before we head cross channel to Jersey. The wifi booster on the boat is doing its stuff and Dave is streaming the British Grand Prix and I’ll be able to watch a bit of Muzza playing in the Wimbledon final later. Just like being at home on a Sunday without the gardening.

We’re in Lymington having had a night at anchor in Studland Bay. We spent several hours yesterday stowing more tools and emptying the remaining boxes. Everything now has a home and the boat looks great. The generator is all plumbed in and working A-okay, the batteries are doing their stuff and the fridge after a couple of temperamental outburst is behaving.

Having been ‘liveaboards’ for two weeks now, we’ve both relaxed into our new lives and getting used to balancing work stuff, maintaining the boat, journeying and just having a bloody great time!

I’ve lost count of the number of friends we’ve seen over the last few weeks, both in Cromford before we moved out of the cottage, in Hull and now on the south coast. Most recently, Linnit, Sarah and family, Mark, Nathalie and Francis, and Fi and co. yesterday. Thanks folks for all the good wishes, cards and gifts.

We’re off to buy some diesel to top up the tank before heading south. I’m looking forward to chasing the sun.

Inside Grace

River Hamble

Dave in the lock in Hull

Leaving hull last July. Seems forever ago…

Every journey starts somewhere. Ours started in Hull. Actually it very nearly didn’t start at all. We arranged to lock out at 7.15am. Got into the lock fine and the water levels were adjusted by the lock keeper. One exit gate opened, the second refused to budge and appeared to be jammed shut. Looking through the gate we could see rampant brown water heading down the Humber to Spurn Point and out into the North Sea.

Lesley, the lock keeper frantically ran round the gates after some jiggery poker and lock keeper magic, the gate slowly lumbered into life with a couple of lurches. Phew, we were able to escape Hull, which was reassuring as the water level was dropping fast and grounding in the lock would have been an inauspicious start to our trip.

The trip to the river Hamble on the south coast took us 56 hours non stop. We were both pretty bushed but happy by the time we moored up as the trip was eventful with battery problems, strong winds but thankfully, no rain as we managed to dodge the thunder and lightening storms that appeared to be dancing across the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coasts.

So we’re current sat in Hamble Point Marina. The battery problem has been addressed and the generator is working now as a couple of guys from Fischer Panda have been on board today installing it and testing it. The fridge is stocked and the water tanks are full to brimming.

Our friend, Lovely Lisa happened to be in Hamble yesterday so she became our first overnight guest. We escorted her to a taxi at 6.45 this morning to get a train back into Maidenhead for work. Shame. She has been known in the past to stow aboard… She came unexpectedly to the Isles of Scilly with us a couple of years ago. We like a bit of spontaneity.

Our next move is to Studland Bay to hook up with more friends then cross channel to jersey this weekend sometime. It’s sunny, shorts and t shirts weather so life is very tolerable.

Friday night was our first night on Grace as our new home. We finally moved out of the cottage in Cromford around 4.30pm that day. The cottage looked fab…. all nicely painted and sparkled for the new tenant who moved in on Saturday. I’d be happy to live there, it’s a great spot.

Our friends Sally and B served us a top quality brunch that Friday to help us with the final few trips up and down the path. For those of you who’ve never been to the cottage it sits about 100m up a swithcback path from the road. Everything is carried up and down this path. At least moving out it was all down hill.

Then over to Hull to unload the van and get stuff onto the boat and find hiding places for everything. Today is Monday and about 50% is stowed.

We caught up with Dave’s mum and dad on Friday night, and his brothers and their families yesterday. The Savages helped us putting some reefs in the main sail and Richard, Dave’s brother was most pleased to be asked to ‘hoist the mainsail’. Thanks for the help guys!

We’re sat in a coffee shop doing some work getting used to what life may be like in the future. How do I feel….. excited, proud we’ve actually got to this point, exhausted (although a couple of good nights sleep have helped) in getting to this point and a little nervous at to the unknown, but it’s a good nervousness.

Weather permitting we’ll be setting sail on Friday. South coast will be the first proposed destination. Please put vibes out for fair winds and sunshine. Thanks!

This is my view from my chair as I have my first cuppa of the day. Our current front room furniture is a 2 garden chairs and an upturned box. We have a futon mattress on the floor in the bedroom and our final personal possessions scattered around the place waiting to go into boxes to one of three storage places.

We moved ‘the office’ to South Wales on Thursday and Friday. Our tenant moves in this coming Saturday so we will be boat based from Friday night. This weeks ‘to do list’ includes finally clearing the house, doing odd bits of painting and remedial work so it is ready for Saturday, seeing  friends in Cromford, a couple of trips over to the boat in Hull to get stuff stowed, a bit of actual business work and sell the car, once we no longer need it.

Thing is, in a couple of weeks time, this practical stuff will all be ancient history and we’ll have time to get our heads around boat life and travelling. Which is what it’s all about.

We don’t have a definite date when we plan to depart Hull; the weather and how tired we are will influence that. But as Dave says…. “We’ll go when we’re almost ready”.

My Mum is sadly no longer with us but if she was, I know she’d be astounded and amused as I’ve taken up sewing. As well as finding time to bring up 4 kids, play tennis, star in the local ‘am dram’ productions, pick pounds and pounds of strawberries (we had a very large garden), she was for a time an accomplished teacher of what was then called domestic science. Which included teaching sewing.

I never had a whole heap of interest in such things and probably / certainly spent time dissing it as a skill. There was dog walking, throwing stones in the river or balls of various shapes and sizes to be hit to occupy my time.

Many years later, subliminally I must have absorbed some level of skill as I’ve almost completed making new dinghy and outboard covers. Not perfect, the stitching is a bit wobbly, but hey, my friend Ken called round last night and was impressed and that is good enough for me. So thanks Mum. Just a few years late!

Dave has been testing his woodworking and varnishing skills. Oh and metal working skills as he’s made a stainless steel bracket for the AIS antenna.

In writing this its occurred to me that our nephews and nieces are probably absolutely delighted we’re leaving the country as God knows what kind of ‘crafty item’ they may have received as a gift for Chritsmas this year.

We’re on countdown. Hope to be departing in mid June.

New dinghy cover under construction

Top step of the companionway getting a spruce up

Reason for not going last year.

Does a job’s list ever get any shorter?  I don’t have a reputation for being a philosophical thinker although this is a question that runs through my mind every night when I get into bed. We have a ‘boat book’. Anything associated with the boat goes in that book. From the simplest things to the most technically challenging. The list or rather the number of pages with lists on in that book seem to increase rather than decrease.

Dave is at this moment working with our good buddy Nick on installing the new generator. I  have learnt in my few years maintaining boats (well mostly supporting the maintenance of boats) there is no such thing as an easy fix, a quick job, a plug and play option. The new generator has a different size foot template to the old one. This means the physical space isn’t big enough. So either part of a bulk head needs to come out or the companion way steps need to move, or both. It weighs 100 kilos so moving it around requires a block and pulley system. See what I mean about the typical non straightforward nature of jobs on our list.

However, I have faith in those boys and I’m sure they’ll have worked through a robust plan before drilling any holes and earning a couple of beers in the pub tonight. I meanwhile am listing random items from our store on eBay. Anybody need 48 pairs of gloves? Thought not. But someone will!

We had planned to head off last year and the attached photo is the best excuse I could come up with to delay us for 12 months. A year ago around this time I was having my ‘chippy chop hip op’. Boat, house and business prep are better options when it comes to filling ones time.

Storm sail

Main sheet

Somewhere mid channel on the way to Jersey

Listening to tunes as the sun comes up

Friday evening and all day Saturday were really productive. All the running rigging is in place, some new cleats secured to the mast for the stack pack, genoa and stay sail are in place and we now know how the water tanks are connected. That jobs only taken us…. Well it’s probably too embarrassing to admit.

The boat came with a storm sail that we’ve never hoisted before. It’s a funky orange colour which I liked. My understanding is we’ll only be flying this is grim conditions so hopefully it won’t see the  light of days for a long time.

Dave spent about an hour up the mast sorting out some electrics and putting some pulleys in place for spinnaker lines. I had a little foray up the mast too to realign some of the lines that weren’t quite right.

Just need to keep reminding ourselves that we will be on our way – so I’ve attached a couple of photos to remind myself of life at sea on previous trips.

In crane

Moving slowly

Being lowered

Looking pretty

Yesterday we got Grace back into the water. She’s been on the hard standing all  winter and access has been up and down a ladder. Now she’s in her natural habitat again.

Its always a bit worrying when your life savings are being trundled about in a couple of slings but all went very smoothly and to plan. The crane is an incredible bit of kit and my guess is the driver will be amazingly good at computer games, looking at the controls. Not my skill set at all.

It was actually a warm spring day in Hull yesterday so we got quite a few of the halyards and lines back on. It was most pleasant working in the warm sunshine. Sails next time assuming it’s not a windy day.

We have paid to be on the visitor moorings until the end of May. Back over to Hull in a couple of days – work needs attending to. Ho hum.

Two main jobs today.

1. Chain. Joining two lengths of chain together to give us 90m in total, marking it at 10m intervals, splicing a length of rope into the end to tie it into the anchor locker, reattaching the spade anchor after Richard helped us ‘touch it up’ with some zinc paint then getting it all back onto the boat. Job ticked.

2. Holding tank or as it colloquially know, ‘the poo box’. We want to put one on the boat so when we’re in those beautiful anchorages, nothing unpleasant gets pumped out. You get my drift. We had plan a. Dave built a model and we tried to fit it. No go. So to plan b. Another model built at home and it fits like a dream. So tomorrow we order the poo box plus a whole load of ancillary bits like diverter values and pipes. Never thought I’d be the proud owner of a poo box.

Other jobs ticked today…. New anodes attached, hull line scrubbed, boat washed, more lists made. In the words of Wallace and Gromit, “A grand day out”.

90m of chain

Our old generator works but it made sense to get it serviced before we set off as its a pretty useful bit of kit. Getting it to the manufacturer involved a 6:1 pulley system, two fork lift trucks and drive to the New Forest. A few days later we get a phone call to be asked “do you know this generator is 25 years old?”

So to cut a long story short, getting the old one serviced was silly money, to buy a new one was silly money plus a (large) bit. So we now have a new generator. Thanks to Martin at Hull Marina, it’s now on the boat waiting to be plumbed in.