Dead chuffed

Got an email from Seamark Nunn earlier to say that the new engine is ready. That's a fortnight sooner than expected which is great news as it means we might knock off two planned weekends worth of work in one long weekend

Just praying now that the new beast fits without too much trouble!

And so the spending goes on ...

Just ordered one of the new out NASA LED combi tricolour/anchor lights to replace our defunct masthead anchor light. NASA LED nav lights have a bit of a mixed reputation but at £123 it's got to be worth a go.

On the same order is an expensive plug and socket! £23 for a plug and socket is a bit steep but it is a proper deck mount waterproof VHF jobbie which we need in order to re-route the VHF cable away from the backstay.

LOTS of other things I COULD have bought but I managed to resist the temptation!

New engine on order

The new four stroke outboard is on order and expected in from Suzuki in early March. It comes as no surprise that the gods have conspired to arrange matters such that by far and away the best weekend for installing it is the weekend of the finale of the Six Nations rugger

We may, therefore, opt to delay the fitting until the back end of April.

Looking forward too getting back out on the water anyway!

The new engine ...

... step 1

Emailed Martin at Seamark Nunn today to put in train the ordering of the new engine. Hopefully the price will still be as good as the quote three months ago and hoping to pick it up in three weeks time but that may be optimistic - the engine they've got in stock but the optional charging circuit has to be ordered in

And so the spending starts

Today I dealt with the first bill of the season - the insurance. £140.00 is a long way from being the biggest outlay I'll be faced with I suppose but it's still painful :-\

Next big spend will be the new engine ... which I really must get ordered!

Not impressed ...

... with the Musto shop at Bicester. Not impressed at all.

Very little in the way of their outdoor clothing, let alone sailing gear. A few BR1 and XM jackets and trousers shoved onto a couple of feet of rail in the far back corner of the store and that was it. OK, the prices on the small amount of stock they had were good but there was nothing that would fit Jane - smallest size they had was an 8 and that was only in the expensive and purple (yuk!) range! That's the smallest adult size they (or anybody else) does and it would be too big so it looks like my beloved is going to have to buy child sizes (again!) of which they had exactly nothing on offer.

The day, as expected, cost me a good few quid but none of it on the gear for sailing we were supposed to be buying. Ho hum!

Today could get expensive!

Off out the door in a few minutes to go shopping at the Musto outlet in Bicester Shopping Village - Jane desperately needs some oilies that will fit her and the cheapy ones me and First Mate Rik have got don't come in a small enough size dammit!

I've also been working on the repairs to the sprayhood for the last couple of days having ordered and received a sailmakers palm, some decent sailmakers needles and the necessary thread etc. Pictures of that fun exercise to follow!

And it's planning time for the coming season - I'm working on the sailing calendar at available spare moments and Jane and I need to get our holiday booked up PDQ. Much discussion about how big a spring refit we're going to undertake (largely depends on size of bank balance!) which will feature in an upcoming article