And another thing ...

... or several from the chandlers

The first three items on the order are the three Imray C-Series charts to cover the Thames Estuary, North Foreland to Beachy Head and Beachy Head to the Isle of Wight. At £18 a pop they aren't cheap but I just don't feel comfortable about relying totally on the electronic charting on the laptop. phone and tablet

On the other hand, I'm not prepared to spend a fortune on the OS or Imray large scale chart folios so the C-Series charts, which cover a large area but have decent harbour plans around the margin, are a good backup.

The next item I've been meaning to add to an order for ages - a gas canister signal horn and spare canister. We've got the sort of thing you blow through yourself but it sounds like a strangled frog and certainly wouldn't be audible on board another boat anywhere near as noisy as ours is when we're motoring!

And I've ordered myself a book on rig tuning and sail trim. Got these new sails, want to get the best from them!

To the above I added a waterproof baseball cap from Musto to replace the one I bought last year which has now gone missing. No doubt the absentee will now turn up. And I also ordered a left handed sail makers palm for Mum and two Crewsaver holdalls like Jane and I bought last year, one for Mate Rik and one for Bosun Glen

And finally ...

The expensive purchase (relatively speaking) which I've um'd and ah'd about for days. To wit, a second anchor. The trouble is it's more weight on board and odds are we'll never use the bloomin' thing. But what if ...

What if we lose the main anchor?
What if we need to shift anchorage in a hurry and can't retrieve the main anchor?
What if we need to drop the hook RIGHT NOW ...

The answer to all these questions is a cheap (aha ha ha) light-ish Danforth anchor and warp stowed at the stern ready to be instantly deployed from the cockpit in an emergency or to kedge off the mud and which could be moved to the bow in lieu of the main bower anchor if needs be.

£120 buys the anchor, chain and warp ready made up in a handy plastic container but the real pain was the whopping £37.95 for a flippin' chain pipe to lead the warp under the aft deck - I thought about doing without it but that would break the "ready to drop instantly" criteria

In the end, after changing my mind more times than I've had cups of coffee this past week, I decided that it's a key safety requirement to have a spare anchor so onto the order it went