Restrictions are starting to get lifted, so it was time to finish off loads of little jobs that had been started, but not finished, as well as clear the back cabin, of all the stuff in it.

A lot of the restrictions in Northern Ireland are starting to ease, so although we can not go where we wanted to go, we can at least go somewhere, so we decided to finish off all the little jobs and tidy the boat so that we could go. However on a domestic front, there was a load of washing to do, at the moment that means washing in a bucket. Beverley and I laughed about the glamour of the cruising lifestyle, while the reality is a lot more mundane and a lot of hard work.

Mood lighting

We had bought some strip lights that could go under the cabinets. The mood lighting we had bought was warm white on a real that came with the wires attached on both ends. These we just put into an inline switch that we had modified, so that it could be screwed into the wood work. Then once that was done, it was just a case of running the wires back to a junction box that was already set up from when we put the mood lighting into the rear berth.

Small storage solutions

Beverley had cut up some wood ages ago, but she finally got around to putting a bit of varnish on them so that they could go into the cupboards. Having the higher piece of wood just meant that things like pots and pans, were less likely to fall out, so it might not be a lot of extra space, but when you are on a yacht, every little bit helps.

Sewing Stuff

I had got the sewing machine out as I had promised a neighbours dog a new bandanna, so while I was at it I also made Beverley one, which was a rather nice blue fabric with a load of anchors on, the dog got a lot of sail boats, while I made mine out of all the scraps I had on board.

The other thing I sorted out was a little bit of tubing which I made out of denim and a little bit of Velcro.

New rope tidy

Our rope tidy was a disgrace, as it had just got destroyed by all the UV rays, so we had gone out and bought some line tamers, They are a very simple solution, but with a few more holes in Salty Lass, they were all installed and they looked great.

Anchor chain inspection

We had inspected the anchor and the shackle at the end was in a sorry state, so we had decided to replace it. Another shackle was looking a little the worse for wear so we thought that we would replace that too. That shackle was still in a reasonable state so that it could become a spare, but the other was so bad that it had to be removed with an angle grinder. Once the chain was removed from the locker, we inspected the chain and cleaned it all down. We had thought that we might need to swap the chain around, but it was all good, so all that needed doing was to put on the new shackles and make sure they were all seized correctly. While the chain was out of the locker we cleaned the anchor locker and made sure that we could read how much of the chain we had out of the locker.

Spinnaker

While we were getting the jobs done, a friend of ours sent us a spinnaker, it is rather old so the fabric is no longer white, and it is short for our boat, but we might be able to use it. It cost us nothing and it will be a load of fun to use it.

Jobs Done

So all the jobs were done, so it was time to sit out and have a nice curry, with a glass of wine.