Guy has gone

Monday was a quiet, rather dreary day when nothing much happened until late afternoon when we had our first go at getting Sam off the boat over the bow. We used the method suggested by Rob from the Storm we visited in Chichester, using the main halyard to get him to the mast and the spinnaker halyard with horizontal line attached to get him forward, and it worked ok with just Ben and me doing the work and Guy supervising, although I think we both need bigger muscles. Getting him on is easier as he naturally swings towards the mast.

Guy wasn't taking part because sadly he has headed off home today, spending a night in Amsterdam en route. We'll really miss his strength, knowledge and confidence. We took him to Flensburg, just over the border into Germany, as it has better train connections, and then carried on to find a chandlery, a specialist gas fittings shop, and an absolutely vast out-of-town hypermarket and Getränkemarkt so we could stock up on booze at German prices. The gas fittings don't quite work, partly because all German gas fittings are threaded the other way (righty loosy lefty tighty), I'm sure there's some Teutonic logic in it which escapes me. The hypermarket was possibly the biggest I've seen and completely baffled me by having some drink priced in Danish kroner - I thought €71 was a bit steep for 24 cans of Carlsberg but in fact it was €9.99. We also bought yet another electric kettle (the camping kettle has no base and a short cable, so you have to unplug it to pour it).

After doing all this, and driving three times through the middle of Flensburg for reasons best known to the GPS, I was utterly shattered and very pleased to get back to the boat. It is nice to have a bit more space and to reclaim the forepeak, which was always Sam's and my cabin - although Sam is still sleeping in the main cabin at the moment.

The weather today has been the best yet - sunshine, blue skies, temperatures up to 20° and lightish westerlies. It was really lovely to eat out in the cockpit and enjoy being there. We ate late as Anders came to reconnect the radar cable - his specialist electrician can't make it. The radar now works, and he also reconnected the VHF which works much better :-) but sadly the AIS, which tracks every ship that carries a transponder, is still not working - not sure why.

The AIS is another one of a number of little niggly things which won't stop us sailing but could take ages to fix. The dinghy is still deflating despite two patches. The masthead lights don't work, although we don't plan much night sailing - for one thing there's currently only about 4.5 hours of darkness. The teak bridgedeck, which we really don't need as it's now lowered to deck level to make things easier for Sam, needs repair.

Anyway, we might try a day sail tomorrow although it might be a bit gusty. Beyond that the forecast looks perfect - very light westerlies, and warm & sunny.