Survived another working week. Had been looking forward to some sailing. Alas weather, crew and health (back ache returned with a vengeance) dictated otherwise. Made a trip up to the boat on Sunday regardless. Clutching a small ‘to-do’ list and with our youngest in tow.

Trip up on cruise control. First stop: Fox’s chandlery. Bought a new LED strip light for the forward head. The original one – Titanic cast-off – had come apart some years ago. Time to put it out of its misery. Also bought a NASA BM battery monitor. Cheap and cheerful, but it does what it says on the box. What more do you want?

With Yanni’s help (to be honest, he did most of the work) jobs 1 and 2 were tackled in no time at all. I had tracked down a wiring fault in the chart plotter last week, and again our Chief Engineer took it in his stride.
We had also bought some wire to sort the electric bilge pump. And item that has been featuring on our ‘to-do’ list for over 2 years now. The job turned out to be more daunting than anticipated, and I was ready to call it a day. Left Yanni to clean up whilst I made another trip up to the chandlery: the starboard dodger had worked itself loose and we needed some string to secure it back in place. Halfway there, a call on my mobile: Yanni. ‘I have fixed the bilge pump’. Lost for words – I had only been gone 5 minutes. BZ!
Dodger back in place and starter battery replaced. Domestic battery replacements on order. End of the list.

“I like – great success – high five!” Or in Yanni’s more down to earth words: quite a productive day.

Whenever I hear people complain/moan/whinge about ‘young people these days’, I can only draw one conclusion: they haven’t got kids like mine. Very proud of both of them.

Sidebar observation: owning a boat and sailing away may have started as my dream, but over the years it has become a family project. Everyone, in their own way, has made an indispensable contribution. We bought our first boat about a decade ago, and since then ‘the boat’ has been the focal point of this family. It really brought us together – in good times and bad. Shared experiences, memories, adventures and nightmares. And as the children grow up, our little family cruises have become the ideal time to catch up on what they’re up to and what’s happening in their world.
‘The boat’ – I wouldn’t want to be without it.

Anyway, off on a tangent – again – back down to earth. Boat’s all fixed and ready for the new cruising season. Roll on Spring and Summer.