Shake up shake down
27 October 2010 | Lefkas
Catherine
I don't know where the time goes to but it's over 10 days since the last blog, but now that Phill has arrived we haven't had time to sit in an internet cafe and chat chat chat. Phill is from Jersey and is going to take us through our yachtsmaster practical whilst we bomb out of the med.
I don't want you to think I'm obsessed about the mast but I have been up again, this time repairing the AIS arial and heh presto it now works - so if you go onto http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/ and look at Lefkada, Greece, you'll see our position when we are at sea (it only works if we have it turned on!). It's cool as you can see how we track through the Med. It doesn't work all the way across oceans but we can see big boats and more importantly big boats can see us. So, putting a VHS antennnae connector is another string to my bow.
Mark has been busy making fibreglass shelves to put batteries on and connecting up the chartplotter, VHF remote and other electrical things.
The kids were delighted that it has been half term and so there have been some British children around the marina. They spent all day playing with new friends yesterday, only popping back for food which meant we could crack on.
So, back to Phill. He has really given us a shake up regarding the sailing aspect of our trip. Taking us through our storm jib and nav lights (er, I think you might need to get some tomorrow!) planning passages (er, I think you might need some charts for Malta tomorrow) etc etc. It's great to really have the pressure on to get sailing because I think there was a risk of us all getting marina rot!
I'm not sure I wanted the kids' first experience to be 7 or 8 days at sea in October weather, but we don't really have much choice and having had 2 weeks of thunder lightening and rain we seem to be facing a calm window of weather. At least they have had a bath (see photo!) So, I have been planning 7 days of menus (anyone who really knows me knows that cooking is not my thing but I am learning to add more seasoning and double my portions!) and today's jobs is to take the bike trailer to the supermarket and stock up whilst Mark and Phill get the sails back from the repair shop, hopefully with a cruising chute bought too. Then it's off to the Port police to check out and we'll be off the blog for a little while (but on AIS!!) Hope you are all well, love Catherine x