May. 27, 2007 - Final Preparations

Or are they?

Just got back from Ipswich, having been up at the boat sorting things out for next Tuesday/Wednesday's crossing.

The big let down is that Peters Opal have done virtually none of the things they said they would get done, despite 3 "chasing" phone calls during last week. They have replaced the broken guard wire, but have done nothing about the stanchion (okay, that was self inflicted damage, but nevertheless, they did offer to fix it). The cockpit speaker for the VHF got finished off on Saturday morning (after I arrived with the key for the cockpit locker, as they had to run the wire through the locker - so, fair enough). But, they have done nothing about the sticking heads door, or any of the other, albeit minor, things that were recorded on the handover sheet.

The weather is the big question at the moment. Depending on whose forecast you look at, next week really doesn't look very good. I don't want an 18 hour "white knuckle" ride, nor do I want to be soaked through for 18 hours.

It is unfortunate that I spent most of Saturday bombing backwards and forwards in the car. I had to go to Ipswich first to drop off the keys so they could complete the cockpit speaker, then I had to get to the Volvo dealer at Wolverstone to pick up the engine spares, before 1.00pm. Then it was down to Southend to pick up the life raft & EPIRB, then back up to Ipswich.

In the end everything got done and now I wait and see what the weather will do. We are very keen to get Emjaytoo over to The Veerse Meer so we can start to enjoy the second year of our "Dutch Experience". But equally I'm not prepared to compromise safety, or comfort for that matter. Of course if it does get delayed, it will give Peters the chance to finish things off properly. At present I'm going to be insisting they pay for the Dutch marina to carry out the work at Peters' expense. Which could be fun trying to get Peters to pay! I do have a card up my sleeve on that score, more later - if necessary.