Victualling

We spent most of he weekend doing still more boat prep.   The first task was to try and remove as much unnecessary clutter as possible.  This requires some negotiation between crew and Skipper as to what kit is, and is not essential...

That done, we motored round to the fuel berth and topped up to the brim with diesel and  fill some spare cans.  Back to the mooring and thence to the supermarket for a mega food shop.

While we intend to eat fresh food whenever possible and to eat out a couple of times a week, it seemed a good idea to stock up with cans and packets so that we have the flexibility to stay at sea or to use the more remote anchorages when he fancy takes us.  Goldfinch's bilges are therefore now crammed with tins of various types of nosh.  Chris (Mike's fiancée) had the brilliant idea of writing their contents on the tops so that they are visible from above.  I'm sure that this will be a great help.

One slightly worrying development was the amount of brown rice, wholemeal pasta etc.. which was insisted upon by the Mate.  This all sounds far too healthy to me.   I wonder if MacDonalds are offering a drone based delivery service yet?

Mike changing the deck light bulb with the Skipper
positioned below to break his fall if the halyard
snaps.

We were also delighted to see Rob Fisher again.  Rob is an old friend who I did an Atlantic crossing with a few years ago.  He happened to be in Ipswich and dropped by to wish us bon-voyage.

Other odd bits of maintenance took place, but with less than two weeks to go we would appear to be just about ready for departure.  It is all really rather exciting!