…. AND I CAN’T WAIT.

The sun has been out constantly for the last week or so, and the temperature has stuck around 11c, and it almost feels warm in the sun! In a fit of hubris, I’ve taken down my bimini (which I am probably going to regret when the next rainstorm rolls in) and am in full on spring mode. I also dug out my camera FINALLY and took a picture of this cormorant around my boat (click for big)

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I hope to do a lot more photography, I’ve been slacking off the last few years.

And it’s not just me, all over the dock the other liveaboards are stirring and getting stuff done. My boat neighbour has made more progress clearing out his boat in the last 3 days than he has over the last three months, people are cleaning, polishing and fixing everywhere. It’s pretty incredible how much easier it is to motivate yourself when the sun comes out! Myself I finally got round to sanding down where the grab bars attach onto the hull, ready to reattach, and also properly secured my NMEA2000 backbone 4 port hub to the wall and tidied up the wires. The bloody RS35 VHF has decided to stop talking on N2K at ALL, so I have to phone Simrad support at some point. ugh.

This is going to be a great year though. Last summer I had JUST moved onto the boat and was far too busy trying to get the water, heat, electricity, stove etc working, and had the engine in pieces for large portions of it. Plus, I wasn’t insured to take the boat out solo – and was nowhere near confident enough to as well :). This year I’m going to try to get out as much as possible – I’ve managed to find a bunch of friends who can’t wait to get out with me, but I am also going to try to get good at single-handing, as I eventually want to head off by myself into the world.

Last winter was a really shitty time in my personal life as I went through a protracted, unclear and extremely confusing breakup, and I am so glad that it’s over. For the first part of the winter I had no diesel heating either, and my electric heater couldn’t quite keep up. I think next year I’ll use both – the diesel heating is lovely, but it takes a long time to get going and heat up the boat – so I really needed to work out what my evening plans are before I use it, since if I’m sleeping at someone elses house then I don’t need to bother putting it on, and if I arrived late at night I’d have to stay up tending it until it was in ‘steady state’ mode. I think I also need to redo my companionway boards (the boat doors) since they have large gaps in – I bet I am losing a TON of heat through there. In addition, if I took a wave into the cockpit then that water is gonna flood through faster than you can say ‘oh shit’. But that can wait.

Summer is coming, and with it heat, warmth, light and fun.

 

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