Still spending!

Every September, for many years, we have visited the Southampton Boat Show. Before we had even considered buying a boat, we would spend a leisurely day touring the pontoons, soaking up the sun and admiring the many boats on display. As the years have passed, our focus has changed: several years were spent boarding boats to consider what we might buy, but, in recent years, the time has been spent inside the halls, talking to people about systems and equipment.

This year is (hopefully) our last Boat Show for a while as we set sail for the great beyond. So we focused on our last major purchases…

We first met Jim and Ann at a World Cruising Club seminar about four years ago. They have both been extremely helpful with advice and information about water makers generally. This year was the year we actually bought something from them: a Schenker Smart 60 watermaker. I won’t go into the technical details about how it works (Martin might do a ‘technical’ blog when we fit it) but a simply put, it will filter sea water to make fresh water, hopefully 60 litres per hour.

Power on board warrants several pages to itself: How much do we need? How can we provide it? Batteries, chargers, inverters, wind generators, solar panels, generators. Lost yet?? This takes an enormous amount of research and discussion. Even after several years of this, Martin still managed to spend over two hours talking to people at this year’s show. I managed about ten minutes and then glazed over.  I did get a couple of free beers though…thanks to the guys at Merlin.

Decisions were eventually made and purchases agreed. Four flexible Sunpower solar panels from Barden and what seems like a whole new system from Merlin (six batteries, two solid solar panels, a new charger/inverter and many other cables, displays and connectors).

A huge dent in the bank balance!

When living aboard, a good tender (dinghy) is essential: it is in effect your car, ferrying you and provisions to and from the shore. We had a list of requirements to do with size and material, but also we wanted to be able to use it for carrying our scuba diving gear. The size was determined by what we could hang off the davits and the fact that there will only usually be two of us. We also needed something that we could store off the davits for long passages. We opted for an F-Rib 275. This has a hard bottom but will deflate and fold in three to be stored in a bag approximately a metre square.

Thanks to the guys at Nestaway for our new ‘car’.

As if the above was not enough, we were also tempted by a few ‘luxury’ items… seats, sunglasses and MR D’s thermal cooker!!

The four days were not all about spending though. We did have a very informative session with Marlow Ropes.

We were fortunate enough to listen to David Hivey speak. David races Moths and has been very successful in European Championships. I had no idea what a Moth was until hearing David speak….look it up … it is crazy racing!!

We then had a personal splicing lesson from him and I spliced my first soft shackle!!

Over the years, we have taken advice from so many people about so many things. We have come to realise that the marine industry is full of people happy to pass on their knowledge and expertise. Thank you all!!