Adventures on Beannacht

The arrival of 350 kgs of gear also brings with it a world of storage problems to resolve. We spent all day Saturday and today emptying the boxes into cupboards and under the beds, and this evening a degree of order is emerging from the mist. We’ve had a lot of firsts in the boat so far, and I’m sure our first storage plan will prove to have as many flaws as the others, but it’s good to get it over with. We now have a short list of essential tasks to do before we sail to Morehead City, and into the ocean. The weather looks fairly good for Tuesday morning, and we should be able to sail for 48 hours or so without stopping, getting us down to the Florida border to there abouts.

While packing on Saturday we listened in to some Heineken Cup rugby Ulster vs Harlequins on the web. Jim Neilly at his finest, it was a laugh a minute, with crafted lines like “Rory Best’s got a grin on his face like a basket of chips” and “but we don’t care about the weather, this is Bondi Beach” It was fun to listen to some good old local radio, and amazing that Ulster are winning matches again. I’d be tuning into Gerry and Shaun for some more nostalgia if they weren’t on at 5.30am my time.

If we needed a reminder that we were not yet in the Bahamas and needed to pull the finger our, it arrived as our yard bill on Thursday. Sailcraft have been good to us, and the quality of their work is excellent, but boat yards are expensive places. There aren’t that many customers around at the minute and bored staff members discovering little projects for themselves on your boat is a quick route to bankruptcy. We’re taking the hint and getting out while we can still pay the bill we have.

 

One of the to-do’s that was completed on Thursday was the arrival our Donny the local sign writer with our new name graphics. Beannacht was finally born in PRESENT BOLD font. Keli has been working on a renaming ritual to appease the sea gods and prevent bad luck from coming our way, we’re going to enact that one at some stage before departure.

And now off to bed for some much needed beauty sleep. We’re both exhausted by 8.30pm most nights, this retired lifestyle really kicks it out of us!