Boat Time, Boat Projects and Boat Dollars

We have been very busy getting ALL our projects  out of the way before we go. Time is quickly passing by ... less than two weeks before we cast off.
Some of the main projects have been: add another solar panel (done), add AIS (automatic identification system which lets us see other boats and them see us - nearly done), add a handhold railing on the swim platform (nearly done), add cabin and fridge/freezer fans (done), and replace a couple of head (bathroom) hoses (almost done).
I have discovered during these projects that anything that you think can be done quickly and easily will not be. We call it "boat time". So if you think a fan will take an hour to install ... in boat time it can easily triple. Nothing on a boat is easy to do as you are working in small spaces with limited access to it. Very frustrating and difficult!
But as we learned yesterday, staying calm and working together actually works. We were moving around some mattresses for the aft cabin when it was discovered that the zipper on one of them had split near the end of it. So we tried to unzip it, and in doing so broke off the tab on the zipper. At the very end of the zipper, of course.  So with four hands and lots of patience and teamwork we slowly and carefully re-zipped it. Only to discover the zipper was double ended !! Duh! I guess we should have looked before we started!
And nothing on or for a boat comes cheap. A set of custom made sheets for our V-berth, which I tried to make myself and discovered is not an easy task, will cost us many times a regular set of sheets (well worth it I say)! Boat dollars we call it.

So now we are moving aboard and slowly making it our home away from home. Clothing is being moved on in batches (what to bring?? Warm clothes, cool clothes, fancy clothes, hats, coats). We have bought a whole stack of used DVD box sets of shows that we can watch along the way as we really are not sure what kind of TV reception we will get with our little "rabbit ears". And I have collected a bin full of knitting projects to do along the way. Orders are accepted!!

The galley is slowly coming together. We bought some stacking drawers and made a row of them in the "garage" which has given us more storage space. Not shown in the photo are the straps we installed to keep them in place.  Plus I ordered extra Tupperware for all my staples and feel quite organized now.

Storage drawers in the garage

Tupperware cupboards

 I bought all new spices and found a super place to store them, cool, dark and the perfect height. The cupboard they are in used to hold a garbage can, a complete waste of space as far as I was concerned, so our "handyman and jack-of-all trades" Nadil built me two amazing pull out drawers in that space for added storage. The garbage can is in now in the garage.

Top drawer

Lower door was for garbage

Spices at back

I have discovered living on a boat makes you extremely organized and I  can now look at a space and go "a-ha" this will fit here, or I can put that there. My shoes are another issue. A girl needs as many shoes as possible. So I took a shelf between my bed and wardrobe and made a little area for shoes. So clever!

We are starting to feel like we are (almost) ready to go.
Now starts the hardest part. I'm not looking forward to saying "see ya soon" to all my friends and family. But we will be back in October to celebrate my nephew's wedding which will be here before we know it.
Our adventures will soon begin .... one day at a time.