The kipper has delivered his old and out-of-date flares to the coastguard station in Dover. He describes the encounter with said coastguard officer as being memorable only because he was instructed to stand out in the cold in the doorway and the gentleman who spoke to him was clearly having a bad day. The word 'grumpy' was used in the narrative which by the sounds of it, adequately describes the both of them!
We went to Petra today to crack on with a few more jobs. We had planned to begin the cleaning and polishing of the hull but the weather is doing it's very best to put us behind schedule. Crewman Bobby D arrived to assist but was aplogetic because his plans to stay for the day were scuppered by family commitments. We spent the time down below chatting about the trip and adding yet more things to the jobs list. We decided it would be a very good idea to fit a 'bum-strap' in the galley to assist the person on mother watch when cooking or working at the sink. When Petra is on a starboard tack things are not so bad but when she's on a port tack, staying in the galley can be problematic if she is heeled over. It often involves clinging to the bar in front of the stove with one hand whilst giving the pot bubbling away on the stove a quick stir. Then, when the boat takes yet another lurch to starboard (usually a sign that The Kipper is playing the let's not reef too soon game) there follows a random visit to the chart table. Of course it never hurts to check the charts but you can go too far and The Kipper gets awfully cross about spaghetti bolognaise all over the GPS and his Yeoman Plotter.
We discussed the freshwater capacity - 80 gallons we think but we're not sure. The Kipper says he will try to find out becuase this will be fairly crucial info when planning the emergency reserve to take with us. He would also like to purchase more anchor chain and warp for the bower anchor that he will carry on the stern. The amount of extra chain will very much depend upon how much space there is in the anchor locker. Just as soon as we can gain access to the forepeak and are then able to access the cover over the anchor locker hatch, he'll let us know. At present, the forepeak is the storage area for - well, everything so you literally cannot get through the door.
We discussed medical provision for our trip. This will be discussed in more detail at the first crew meeting but we will need to source a good medical kit for our trip. My Medical Care Afloat certificate is out of date so I feel a refresher course coming on unless of course one of the chaps has an in-date ticket.
We did manage to get a couple of jobs finished today. I removed all the curtains and cushion covers for their annual trip to the washing machine while the Kipper and Bobbie D worked on replacing more of the head-lining panels in the aft cabin. The chaps put in a valiant effort working on deck (banished up there becuase the spray-adhesive they were using was lethal below decks): in the end, the cold weather got the better of us so we put off for another day all thoughts of cleaning, polishing and buffing the hull.
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