Here I am again, no we have not set sail yet, calm down, what’s all this stress?

Whose idea was it to live on the boat already in March? Way too cold! The first weeks were freezing cold. During the night the temperatures went down to -5°C, it was so cold that the condensation regularly froze on the windows. As it was cold (Mirco, say cold again, I dare you, I double dare you) and we lived aboard, humidity was a big issue, which we fought by ventilating as good as we could, having the choice of what we wanted to suffer from. But that’s one reason I wanted to go early, to experience the cold (oups) weather and the subsequent change to coldish and from coldish to warmish.

What we did

On March 1st, 10:17 Zulu time, our little Contessa 32 has touched water. We spent the first couple of days going through all the stuff left by the previous owner. Who thought a boat could contain that many items? We installed the main sail, the furling genoa (twice, since the first time the UV protecting strip was obviously on the wrong side), played cards, tried to understand all the equipment, cleaned the boat, tested the dinghy with its engine, baptized the boat Yaniv, and probably other important things. As mentioned in my previous post, a solar arch was already fitted and a solar panel was included. Astonishingly, it was very easy to install it. All screws, holes, supporting tubes, were already there.

After the settling in phase, the daily routine began. Saskia worked 2–3 times a week from the local library while I was on the boat doing things, making a mess, fixing or studying something, tidying up the mess, and repeat (usually skipping the tidying up step).

After a month, I began redoing the electrical system. It was an emotional rollercoaster. I detached every cable and had 50+ unlabelled cables flying around, unsure if I could ever finish this project. But I knew it was necessary. If something goes wrong at sea, a fuse blows, a battery dies or a contact corrodes, you need to be able to identify and fix the problem. With no schematics, no labels, nothing, that wouldn’t be possible. Slowly, after installing (glassing to the hull) the new fuse boxes, re-crimping the cables, testing and labelling them, I started to enjoy it, especially after having running water and a working fridge again 🙂

My goal is to be able to be independent of shore power (or engine) for about 3 days. Not knowing exactly what the electrical appliances will consume, it’s difficult to size the battery. After doing some advanced calculations, I roughly estimated the capacity of the battery. I would need 200 Ah. No, 330 Ah, or maybe 100 Ah? Argh, come on, start with a 200 Ah and if it’s not enough you can put another one in parallel. Argh, fuck it, I’ll buy the 330 Ah and be on the safe side. That’s exactly the dialogue which happened in my mind, with the difference that it lasted over two weeks, was in Italian and occasionally in Swiss-German on Tuesdays. For those who are interested, I upgraded the electrics with the following equipment (everything from Victron):

• 330 Ah Smart Battery
• Smart BMS 12/200
• BMV 712 Smart Battery Monitor
• BlueSolar MPPT 100/20
• BluePower Charger 25A

Life in Ardrossan

Ardrossan is a nice little (wee as they say here) town on the west coast of Scotland. Not really much happening here. There are 2 pubs, a pharmacy, 3 train stations, several fish and chips shops, 0.05 castles, a marina (oh really?), a Chinese take-away, a library, a wind farm with 15 turbines, a big grocery store, a gym, and some restaurants, I guess you got the idea.

When we are not working, we try to enjoy our life here. Twice a week we go to a yoga class, a SPA treatment for our backs, since sleeping on our mattress is not that comfortable. 1–2 times a week we attend some gym classes, like AMRAP or abs. As ASDA, the grocery store, is very near, we go to buy groceries daily, mostly hunting for bargains in the “Still Fresh” sections. To save some money, but mostly to die from something else than coronary artery disease, we cook as much as possible ourselves.

What’s next?

You guessed right, we are looking forward to finally sail! Very soon we will go out for the first time, try the sails, our anchor, and make a short day trip. Once confident enough, we will slowly sail towards Norway.

Love

Mirco