On November 4th 2020, Grace and I left Kantara expeditiously to go back to our house for the duration of the just-announced lockdown. We've returned from time to time to make sure she's okay, but we've not even slept in her since that day; until last Sunday. We're back!
This is the start of our move back onto the boat. It's only the first steps. We still need to go back to the house a few times, but it's our intention to be based here for the rest of the year. And it's so good to be here! Kantara's in need of a fair bit of TLC, and this is what we've been administering from the moment we arrived; mostly dusting and de-spidering yesterday. We're always amazed how much dust gets into the cabin when all of the windows are closed. It has to be due to the six "mushroom" ventilators down the length of the roof. And they have been subjected to a lot of wind in past months.
Our first night was a cold one. The Bubble stove wouldn't light, and we don't trust the ancient Alde gas boiler not to leak. We were snuggly warm in bed, but awoke to an internal 1 degree° C. We tried everything we could think of, including posting calls for help on several boaters' forums on Facebook. Lots of advice, but sadly no solutions yet. All I could find wrong was that the filter was very dirty, but cleaning it made no difference. This happened to us back in 2013, when a day's cruise did the job - we think it must have been the vibrations of the engine that did it. We'll try that soon!
It was lovely and warm for the next two days, and we got a lot of work done. The green algae on the roof looks awful, but was easily removed with soapy water. While I was doing that, Grace cleaned the windows inside and out, and washed the net curtains. The blinds got vacuum cleaned.
It's a start. The roof's not quite finished, the cabin sides need to be cleaned and waxed, the paintwork needs a fair bit of touching-up, and the Bubble stove needs to be professionally serviced. But we're back. We have no specific plans for cruising, except that we will cruise. We simply have ideas as to where we travel. I expect we'll play it by ear. The map is out, and so will we be!
PS I just got the stove working!
What great news, Roger. I'm so pleased to hear you're home where you belong, and I'll look forward to reading about your adventures soon. Cruising weather is coming! I know all about the dust, by the way. Even though I'm on board part of every week, and clean it all up regularly, the dust gets in everywhere. It's just boats!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Val. We just hope we remember how to manage the boat! At the moment, we feel as if we need a lot of settling in, but we'll get there!
ReplyDeleteHaving enjoyed your books it's great to see you back, and ready for more adventures. So what solved the stove problem?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the welcome! It's good to hear from you. I'm so glad you enjoyed my books. I think the thing that solved the stove problem was persistence! One morning I woke up and went through the process of lighting it, and, lo and behold, the diesel flowed into the stove. I can't imagine what had happened before then to make it happen, but we're very glad it has. On our first morning back, the bedroom temperature was 1℃! Hang on in there, I'll get round to some proper boaty blogging soon.
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