Weekend #1 of our final period of work came and went in a bit of a soggy flash. Lauren made a huge dent in sorting through our food stores and we did another big shop of cans, pasta and rice to begin building our long term stores. Grant's also been making great progress fitting the final bits of wood trim so that left me to get the fore deck and wheelhouse painted.

This is England though, and I should have known better. All was going well to start with and I managed to get all the taping done and the first coat of paint down.

The weather was even playing ball and we had an amazing corona rainbow show itself early on the Saturday morning.

Then the rain and wind hit. 40kts and driving drizzle meant all work outside effectively stopped. I still managed to fit some protectors to the stainless angle I've used for the kayak supports and also get some cleats fitted to the swim platform, but the remainder of the weekend was spent indoors, looking for jobs to do. Honestly, I hate this weather.

Still, anything is better than being back at our old rubbish boat yard and at least we don't dry out here. 

This coming weekend is 5 days long thanks to Easter, so the plan is to get the last of the painting done (deck and handrails), prep the rig for being lowered next week, paint the bilges and get all the 6mm shrouds made up (the 8mm shrouds will get done once the rig is lowered). We're still set to haul out on the 10th April as well so everything is still on track - it'd just be great if the weather played ball and allowed us to finish the work off.

49 days to go....

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So... this past weekend we moved from the hell hole of a yard we've been stuck in for the past 4.5 years (see muddy low water photos below), to a new, clean, sparkling, nice place to do our last 2 months worth of work. This is how the old marina looked at low tide....

And this is the long pontoon I've walked down just about every weekend for 3 years.... I can't tell you how big the grin on my face was the last time I walked down this.

I had a few bits and pieces to do on the Friday before we dropped off the car at the new marina, took a cab back to the current yard, packed everything aboard then set off.

The plan was to head over to Cowes for a night but with the wind perking up a bit, a whole lot of stuff on deck and a US Navy aircraft carrier due in the Solent on the Sunday (and all the exclusion zones, etc etc), we motored up to the waiting pontoon in the middle of the Channel to sit tight for the remainder of the day.

Sunday morning dawned and it was time to move into our new marina. I'm pleased to report our solar panels and wind gen did just fine keeping pace with our power usage as well....

Anyway, after a relatively quick motor and holding our breaths over the entrance sill, we got in around lunchtime, tied up, and put the kettle on.

Oh, and I saw this on the way back. It's a DB5 with "Bond J" as plates. Awesome.

So that's it for this week. I have a mate working on the boat for three weeks and I'll be down on the weekends to get the painting done, etc then it'll be time for the final haul out and finish. Still looking good for May 19....

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Holy sh*t - two months to go today. Can you believe it? I sure can't. I've had a countdown going on our white board at the flat since it was 90-odd weeks to go, and now we're just 2 months away from departure.

This is the big weekend coming up - our move weekend. I have a mate coming up from Cornwall to help this weekend (and also to get some work done on the boat over the coming month) so we're hoping for a run to Cowes on Saturday, fuel up, then back to Chichester Harbour for a night on the hook, before motoring in to the new marina at lunchtime on Monday.

The new marina have also said they might not be able to haul us out straight away, so I've re-jigged our final "to-do" lists so we're still on track for a May 19 departure. For those interested, here's what's left to do:

- Paint deck, wheelhouse, railings and bootstripe
- 4 coats of anti-foul
- Re-do the standing rigging and fit mast steps
- Move the wheelhouse helm (steering) to the aft deck and sort out the stiff rudder
- Fit rope cutters, new anodes,
- Fix the anchor and steaming lights
- Fit 6 new house batteries
- Have a big ol' clean out and clean up of everything

It seems like a big list, but it's really not. A lot of the jobs are quite easy and I think it's an indication of the amount of work we've done so far, that the above list seems like nothing.

Anyway, the clock is now really starting to tick. Update to follow.

n

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Having had one of those great days in the office with my American colleagues, where I was yet again questioning the sanity of leaving a six figure City job to live a frugal life sailing around the world, all it took was 26 pages in this month's Yachting World to make me realise how much I can't wait to leave this place.

In the course of those 26 pages, the magazine bemoaned the disappearance of astro navigation and lavished praise on the ridiculous twat-and-pomp-fest that is the Royal Yacht Squadron - bear in mind this is the same publication that has continuously questioned the safety of GPS and electronic flares, and whose editor appeared at a well-attended Bluewater Cruising Seminar and had the cheek to tell everyone to "be careful of younger crew, as they're likely to fall asleep on watch". When I say everyone, I mean a room full of geriatrics who would struggle to go through an average night without having to empty their colostomy bags umpteen times.

The great British empire is over, yet they cling on to their once brilliant/now pitiful military, appalling weather (seasons? ha!) and the past that is well, that past. Astro navigation is outdated, GPS is the future (the world accepts it, so why can't the British?), any form of progress in leisure boating, and if I have to deal with one more "I'm off shooting / yachting / etc this weekend" twat, I'll break his red trouser wearing legs.

Yes, I have made some amazing friends in my time here but after eleven long years, we're leaving in 9.5 weeks and I, for one, couldn't be happier.

/off to the boat tomorrow to continue preparing it for our trip....

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