His and Her storage........

Picture the scene. Anchored in the Tobago Keys, late evening, you are down below laying on the Port settee (or "Horizontal II" as my wife calls it)., single malt in hand reading a good book. Admiral is banging about making jam or something. She needs to access the drawer under your settee, bookshelf over your head, etc.. Moment ruined!!!!!

On TIH we will have His and Her storage in the Saloon, at the very least. The Port side is mine and the Starboard side is hers. Keep in mind that I have a full Perkins M65 engine as a spare (minus the flywheel and block) I need all the space possible.

Drawers v. drop in storage

The picture shows the existing drawers on the port side of the saloon. The drawer dimensions are 14" x 13" x 4" = .42 cu ft. Without the drawer the dimensions of the space are 17" x 18" x 9" = 1.59 cu ft. That's a a lot of wasted space. I intend to remove the drawers (using the front as a blank) and access the space from the top.

Finally back on the boat.......

The boat looks like a bomb hit it. I have about 12 half finished projects on the go. I think I had ADHD when it was called "not paying bloody attention". The problem with boats is that they are "layered". You pull something out and then realize that if you put it back you will have to pull it out again at a later stage to get at something else. At least that's my excuse. I did manage to finish painting the port side of the saloon and got some paint/varnish on the shelving/partitions.

Cruising Friends......

We caught up with some of our old cruising friend in Salinas on the South Coast of Puerto Rico and were happy to find most of them doing well and the rest were out on bail. This is what passes for entertainment on a slow day in Marianne's (Tradewinds) sail loft.

Boat work.....

Not much work on TIH at the moment, I'm busy driving a 47ft powerboat (not a bad gig). Took the boat to Fort Lauderdale yesterday for some maintenance. Its always nice to see the big toys in F.L.





I still would prefer to be on the boat pictured below (Whitby42 Zig Zag, anchored off the ICW, looking good).

Storage Plan

I am convinced that, when it comes to neatness, the world is divided into two types of people, Stackers and Spreaders. I am firmly in the spreader camp. Half of my time is spent looking for stuff. The W42 has LOTS of lockers. As I am tied up with other peoples boats at the moment I spent a few moments numbering the locations (using the standard odd numbers on the Stbd. side, even numbers on the Port side) on the attached plan. Time will tell how that works.

Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, Next stop is Vietnam;

Well, I'm actually just back. Amazing two weeks in an amazing country. Go now before there is a Mickey d's on every corner. (Only one KFC in Hanoi, we did not indulge).

Boat is still floating, looks like we might survive hurricane season 2010 (touch wood etc.)