I must admit to feeling a bit down and out after so narrowly missing out on the Aries windvane last week. As always, the cure for all my troubles is to go sailing.

As you will have gathered by now, our annual pilgrimage to the Oostende voor Anker got axed by the weather gods. So we settled for the next best thing: a trip out to open sea and to nowhere in particular (Sealand in this case) and then back again. Blue sky and scattered clouds, at times a brisk northerly breeze and some much appreciated sunshine. Still cold though.
Best seven hours I spent in a long time. Fell (even more) in love with the boat and her crew.

I also had time to conduct a quick audit of our electricity usage. Not good: the fridge and the autopilot are both very greedy. Both are drawing 6-7Ah each. Our battery bank is 440Ah and the wind genny puts in only a mere 3Ah (just about enough to keep up with everything but the fridge and autopilot). Energy independent we are not. We would need to run the engine (or a generator - of which I'm not a fan) at least once every 24H.

At the moment I'm on the lookout for a much more energy efficient fridge. As current one is nearly 30 years old that should not be too onerous. Solar panels would be a welcome addition to our inventory too. As I still have my mind dead set on some sort of windvane selfsteering energy independence should be will within our grasp.

I have discounted the possibility of getting some kind of towed generator: these things only generate power when under way and when you add a windvane to the mix I fear this may very well prove to be an accident waiting to happen. All in all, it would not be an efficient allocation of limited financial resources.

With the 2015 AZAB in mind, I managed to lay my hands on a Guy Cotten TPS survival suit. An eBay bargain of which I am, for some inexplicable reason, quite proud. Though not proud enough to post a picture of me wearing it. Suffice it to say that when I tried it on I was likened to a Teletubbie.

The next month or so, this family/crew will be in the grips of exams and work, so I don't think we'll be able to squeeze much sailing in. We'll still try to do so whenever possible, but I don't expect it to be much to write home about.

Overall, I must admit to feeling a lot better about the boat/life/the world and everything than I did this time last week. And that must be good thing.
Hang in there, because we try to too.