I think the theme for this weekend was cold....

The weekend really started on Friday 13th - Oh I hear you say, unlucky! Indeed our plans have been thwarted by the tenant who was due to move in end of next week pulling out on Friday. Aaagh!!

So.. calls to 2 new agents in the next big town came to visit and gain details of the property for marketing. Here I have to say our home at present is not a pretty sight- boxes every where. It was all hands to deck to shift boxes between rooms to allow photos to be taken and some form of order to the chaos. Definitely an anxiety making time with cold feet and is it fate? Playing on our minds.


Having sorted all we could we packed off to the boat with our list of to do's.....


The first job was to connect the newly installed refrigerator. Scrabbling around on the floor under the cooker, checking 3 times that we were about to connect the right connectors together we screwed the fittings in tightly, turned on the power and YES the fan whirred into action. So we left it to get cold and onto outside jobs.


We had planned to paint the boot top (the line of contrasting paint just above where the water reaches). Whilst Pete sanded the old flaky paint off Jackie set about taping up to ensure a neat edge. Well that was the plan, 45 minutes, 2 rolls of tape and a few choice words later, the longest run of tape Jackie could manage was about 3 inches as the tape had worn and edges were tearing all the time. So off into the car to the marina to hunt down a new roll. £2 lighter, a new roll of tape and the life-raft that had been delivered to the marina office after its service, we returned to the boat. How comes the wind always picks up when you are trying to stick things? I don't know what temperature the paint requires to dry but it was freezing so once Pete had finished we went back inside the boat for a cup of hot coffee and a thaw out.


Back on board and it was time to check the condensing plate in the fridge. Would you believe it? Not only was the plate cold but had ice on it!!! A first for us on a boat - Well done Pete!!


So 2 jobs to go...

Job 1 - Reinstate the life-raft into its holder. This sounds easy but the life-raft is heavy and the holder hangs off the back of the boat.

Ever the inventor Pete rigged up a system of pulleys and slowly winched up the life-raft from the floor about 9 feet into the air whilst Jackie foolishly stood below directing the lift. With what seemed like great ease (last time it was a nightmare) he then slid the retainer bar into place and BINGO all secured. Well done again Pete.


Job 2. Final job for this weekend, site the web address stickers onto the boom. Again freezing cold and windy with the stickers wanting to make a bid for freedom in the wind. The first sticker was tricky and the cold weather made it take longer to stick, however having revisited the instructions the second went on easier. We stood back to admire our work and they look GOOD.


Then home for a hot bath and warm up.


Sunday saw us up early and out by 0630 -(a bit like when starting out on a passage). It was bright but cold and the first job was to scrape the frost from the car windows. Maybe summer is not quite here yet. We drove to the Hamble to undertake an SSB course.

The course was very useful and it was good to be able to 'get your hands on a radio without accidentally setting off a distress signal' .

There were only the two of us on the course so we were able to ask the daft questions without fear of looking silly, however fewer people meant the classroom was not heated by bodies and again it was cold. thank goodness it warmed up as the day went on and we left believing we will at least be able to use one of the very expensive pieces of equipment purchased this year.



By the way... this leaves us with another 'to do' to add to the list... programming 160 channels into the radio!!

HOWEVER this means for once I can stay in out of the cold.