Hi guys,
I've had a couple of messages pointing out that I'm neglecting the forum so I must apologise. Sorry.
I finished at my job on Tuesday and flew to
Gibraltar on Wednesday to see the
boat afloat for the first time! Hayley even picked me up from
Gibraltar airport in the
dinghy which was hilarious but an amazing way to first see Susan Ann II afloat and to come alongside. We ate, drank and celebrated the night away and I didn't stop grinning. It's amazing! Still haven't stopped grinning and it's only just starting to feel like someone isn't going to come along and tell me they made a mistake and have to take it all away.
We haven't stopped working since we woke up the next morning. Our boat list is pretty full considering it's a
new boat but not with things that need doing but with things we want to do. The
solar install should be complete by Tuesday and the
electrical install finished on Wednesday ish I think. I'll post some pics tomorrow when I get a minute. My first job tomorrow is to do our first 50 hour
oil change on both engines and sail drives taking advantage of the instal guys weekend off, or I'd be in their way.
We got her off the berth today just for a few hours so I could start to get a feel for the way she handles. Hayley is without doubt the
captain of this boat and put her back on the berth beautifully (on the 2nd attempt). We'll give it another go tomorrow afternoon while we have the boat to ourselves these are perfect conditions to practice in. There's so much to learn but we are getting there slowly and loving every minute.
The funniest thing is we keep saying to each other 'this is without doubt, the best buy' and that's for everything from the full
cockpit enclosure to the folding bikes. I think we are loving yacht life and got really lucky with our choice of boat. It seems so far (early days I know) that it's very us, it's just exactly what we want from a boat.
Thanks everyone on here that offered
advice and still do, we've listened, soaked it all up and are definitely benefitting already.
I'll update on our upgrade progress tomorrow.