A possible new crew member for Beannacht, he's on seatrial tonight.

Meet Anzuelo, which means fish hook in Spanish. We’ve been talking about a ship’s cat for a while and met another cruiser on the dock this morning who’d found Anzuelo by the roadside yesterday. We decided we’ll give him a day or two on the boat to see how he does and if he seems happy then we’ll take him to the vet for his shots – and just in time for my dad’s visit too, perfect!

It’s been a big week for work on the boat. We’ve taken out our leaking window and spent hours trying to separate the perspex from the aluminium frame. Age and salt water has fused the bolts in place and whacking them with a hammer appears to be the only solution. I brought the window to shore today to vent my frustrations and met Judith a local who’s been living at the marina for four years and has a Jeanneau, which is a similar boat to ours. Within about 10 minutes she’d called a local perspex supplier and arranged for us to go tomorrow to have a replacement window made for $36 – amazing! She’s even going to drive us there and back. Our windows are fairly heavily crazed – they’re covered in tiny horizontal cracks that reduce their transparency – and so I think I’ll replace both windows even though I actually only need to do the starboard side.

Otherwise we’re good. Not managing to write much because not much is actually happening. Essentially we’re using the time before mum and dad arrive to get some jobs we’ve wanted to do, done. We’re really excited about the arrival of our first visitors, sharing some of what our life looks like these days with people we love was a big part of the dream from the beginning.

Off to show Anzuelo the litter tray, but there’ll be daily updates of his progress from here on in!

PS> we’re struggling with a batch of baby houseflies who apparently like the sailing life at the minute. Kel’s allowing her less refined personality loose with the fly swatter, potty mouth and all. Anzuelo will have to sing for his supper, so to speak.

Kai has been a Mullington from the beginning of the Mullingtons! At 6 weeks old he joined the team in Frenchpark Street, and he’s been a faithful buddy the whole time.

We hope to remain uncle and aunt to Kai for the rest of his life, and are delighted that he’s settling into his new home.