Preparations for the circumnavigation
Both Aditi and we are at the half-way mark. We all feel that we are progressing well against our original 2 year timetable ahead of departure. Our preparatory work is covered under the ARC 2013 page of this site.
As we are now at the mid-point in our 24 month run up to the big cast-off we can definitely confirm that it takes two years hard slog alongside a job to get a boat ready. It’s about what we expected. We turned away from some serious projects because, although a great challenge, we could see a 5 year commitment would be required in order to get afloat. Maybe another day. Can we ease off…it’s tempting.
Hopefully we are not too deluded but as we feel that we are on target we may have the opportunity to enjoy the boat a little as opposed to forever having a head jammed into some dark crevice, torch in mouth, balancing 5 tiny parts compressed between fingers, all to go on one bolt in specific order just out of practical reach, probably with a hot pipe on one side, a sharp corner above, with feet rocking on two floor struts and a thick cable run just across the eyes. A typical Saturday morning and after 5 hours yoga the part that was resisting admits defeat through attrition as the seventh inspired tooling substitute blindly lines them up. Saturday evening is typically punctuated by some other unrelated component deciding to get involved and that’s Sunday’s jobs setback another week. Such surprise attacks have come from:
The Toaster – shorting and tripping the 250v circuit long before we planned to analyse it so big delay as wiring diagrams come out, wires traced and so on.
AIS – burning the whole of the negative supply cable before fusing
The Heads – these just revolt when they feel like it
Heating system – a regular ambush through coolant leaks, overheating and coded shutdowns
Raymarine compass – suddenly recalibrates by 140 degs
Transformer – cooling fan bearings rattling
Strobes – the earth wire does it’s own thing
General Upkeep – who’s he?
Starting from where we did it would be a task and a half to get ready in less than a year and the opportunity to learn about the innards of the boat would be limited (hey, maybe we should just go after two weeks and miss out on this part next time). But the great advantage of a boat – wherever you go you take the disgruntled parts with you!
