This morning we were awakened by a flock of swans requesting breakfast. They were pecking at the boat with their beaks, obviously stating their intentions, which were ‘feed me’. The last few days we had ducks and geese, and now swans. Maybe the birds are telling each other that there’s plenty of food available at the blue boat. Who knows what birds will be on our doorstep tomorrow. Pelicans maybe? Albatrosses?
Although it was still quite windy we tried flying with the drone today. We haven’t done it in ages, high time to brush up in our flying skills. When we found a place to fly and were setting up the drone, another drone passed over our heads. It was making a ‘follow me’ motion, probably the other pilot wanted to race with us. But since we are still in beginners mode we rejected the invitation for play and found another spot to practice.
We’re leaving tomorrow, so after playing with the drone we got some groceries for the passage and went to bed early.
Busy day today. We continued with connecting the solar panels. The holes are all done but the carabiners were way to big, causing the panels to hang lower than the toe rail. Back to the shop to get smaller ones.
Next was attaching the connectors and connecting the cables. Armed with soldering iron and tin we approached the task at hand. When we were almost done, we discovered we should have connected one of the connectors differently. We tried to pry the connector loose, but turned out that once you have clamped the wire inside the connector with a metal clip, the clip is stuck inside the connector, and you can’t get it out again. The only thing that happens is that you pull the wire out of the connector and the clip stays put.
Now we need a new connector before we can continue. So the solar panel job is postponed. Again.
Another chore for today was fitting all the food we bought yesterday in the boat. Not an easy feat considering we have probably enough to eat for 3 months. We learned when we became liveaboards that spreadsheets are a necessity to keep track of your food stock. Due to the limited amount of storage space on a boat, the locker are crammed with food stuffs. When you open a locker you’re not only in danger of causing a food avalanche, but if nothing falls out it’s impossible to see what’s inside. It happened before that we bought new pasta only to find out that we already had 3 untouched packages in the back of a locker. So we’re making a list, checking it twice…Every item, where we have stored it and the expiration date. A lot of work, but you really don’t want to go through all the lockers to in search for that can of sausages only to find out that it’s past the expiration date when you have just moored the boat after a long day sailing.
We also replaced the anchor chain and anchor line. The old chain was severely rusty, so we bought 30 meters new chain and 40 meters reinforced anchor line and color coded the whole thing to see how much chain you have already put out. Feels safe to have a sturdy new chain.
Despite the chores we managed to find the time to fly with the drone today, and all the troubles were forgotten.
