Final Countdown

It's all got to fit somewhere!

There's no way that packing can be described as fun but having re-organised everything on BV and catalogued where everything is stowed we both feel a real sense of achievement. Earlier, having loaded the spares and other technical stuff, we both had a slight fear that there would not be enough space left for the books, clothes and personal belongings that we wanted to take. However, it has all fitted in and there are even still some empty lockers. Just the last few small belongings, such as mobile phones, and some food to load and we'll be done. The plan is to move onto BV full time in less than a week when Nicky is back from teaching an RYA Day Skipper and Competent Crew course.

Passerelle and jerry cans secured

With Nicky away I took one of my best buddies sailing for a couple of days and, around that, worked on the last couple of projects. The first of those was finishing the teak beams and securing straps for six jerry cans. With their covers on, the jerry cans are fairly unobtrusive on deck. Perhaps a little overkill but they will give us an extra 120 litres of fuel capacity which could come in handy on some of the longer passages; particularly crossing the Atlantic when we get around to that.

The final project I am working on is an insert for the gas locker. It is safest to carry gas bottles secured in a dedicated self draining gas locker. BV has one of those and it is designed to carry two 6 Kg and one 3.9 Kg Calor Gas propane cylinders. The issue is that Calor Gas is a UK company and the gas bottle designs are different around the world so we know that we are unlikely to be able to exchange them for full Calor Gas ones when we are away.

For the first part of our adventure in the Mediterranean the most readily available gas bottles will be Camping Gaz ones and we have worked out that we can fit two of them into the space that the 3.9 Kg Calor Gas propane cylinder sits in. Whilst there is space for the two 6 Kg propane cylinders and the two Camping Gaz bottles, the locker is not shaped to secure the 2.75 Kg Camping Gaz bottles, hence the requirement for an insert for the locker. It's fairly crude at the moment but I should just have enough time to tidy it up and get enough layers of paint onto it before we move onto BV next week.