Saturday 23 July

With one week before our expected departure, it was crucial to ensure we have a place for everything we need, we don’t carry too much excess, and that things are accessible. Most of our large storage space is under beds or seats, so when packing stuff away, we have to think about storing stuff for the longer term in the less accessible places. This means for food, I need to have an idea about my menu and what needs to be accessible, now, as I pack things away.

Pete’s dad, Choppa, is doing the first 10 days with us, as is Snowy ( you can read about Snowy in her own blog!). Both of them were aboard on Saturday at various times to help with sorting and stowage. It took the best part of the afternoon to get everything away, but by 4 pm, there was nothing remaining in the galley or saloon and still stowage space available for fresh food. I was very proud and Pete was astonished!

Next job was to work out what we needed to take in the storage cabin and what we could do without. We had planned to keep the cushions in case we needed to covert that back to a sleeping cabin. The cushions take up a lot of room, and even though they would fit in our cabin, we decided to leave them. The maximum number of people staying on board was going to be 4, so we put in the cushion for the saloon table in case we may need an additional double bed.

Our cockpit tables are free standing and usually live on bunks. This won’t be practical when we are on the move, so we had to find alternative solutions. I found a way to stow one on the rear bulkhead using the lee cloth D saddles and a spare bit of bungee. The other will need installation of more D saddles, but we can do it tomorrow. Tomorrow will be packing this cabin with the dinghy, inflatable SUP, dive gear and any other stuff that’s too big for anywhere else. We also need to make a cat cubby house for Noodles, as this cabin is where she likes to be when we are underway.

We decided we would head home instead of staying another night on board, so we put on the covers and tidied up and were relieved to see below decks looking clear in stark comparison to the morning. Tomorrow the main goes back on, for which we need crew assistance so we don’t have a divorce!