What's Coming Next for Seas the Day? Exciting Stuff!!

The counties we are planning on visiting. We still haven't decided on Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania, I think it depends how much time we have!

So, what’s next?  Before we talk about this year, we need to give you a bit of context to next year, 2023.  Our plans are to set sail and leave The Netherlands.  As much as we love this country and there is so much more to see and explore, we feel one year in the same place is enough. We want to go out exploring and see what else the world (or at least the continent) has to offer, not to mention go somewhere the sun shines for more then 3 days a year!  Our aim is to get to the Mediterranean and spend an extended summer in little coves of Italy, France, and Greece. Dropping the anchor and taking the tender into small villages with beautifully fresh markets and onto beaches for evening fire pits and BBQ’s. There’s a lot of preparation work to do before we can go, but our goal is to leave around March, April time and be in the Med by May. Jess is a very new sailor and so we can’t and don’t want to be sailing overnight and rushing to get to our destination. Instead, we want to take our time and explore the west coast of France as part of our trip. There are so many places off the beaten track where we would like to visit. I think a lot of people think of Bordeaux or la Rochelle when they think of France, but there is so much more to this spectacular country. We are aiming to take around 6 to 8 weeks to get to the Gibraltar straits and hug the coasts France, Portugal, and Spain. We’re not sure how long we will spend in the Med, but we have no set plans or time frames at the moment, we are in no rush but want to make sure we do these magnificent places justice. Time frames are also quite dependent on Jess’s visa situation. Being a British citizen, as I’m sure a lot of you know, it’s all about visas and how many days you can be in once country before having to leave etc. We need to do a bit more research and see how long she can remain travelling. Matt on the other had is all good being an Irish citizen he has no restrictions whilst in the EU. Luck of the Irish aye!

     

These are just a few of the places we aim to stop. We aren't planning to stop off in England, but we will be paying the Channel Islands a visit, especially the smaller ones of Sark and Herm.  This is most definatly not a comprehensive list all the places we will be stopping. We will be doing a lot more research over the next few months and making a very detailed list of places to see and visit!

If you have read the about us section of our website, you will see that our four-legged friends are a large part of our lives. As we said before, Teddy, our oldest will not be coming with us. He is a large dog and is completely blind. He loves his home comforts and isn’t very good in new places, let alone at sea. We will definitely be taking Archie with us, he’s already been sailing with us a few times and he loves with wind in his fur and relaxing in the sea air. His favourite place of all time is at the beach, especially when there’s a stick to chase. Then we have our little puppy (not so little, and no longer a puppy) Winnie. We would live to take her with us, but at the moment we think she might be a little too young to be in a small area with no outside space to run around in. She loves being with her mum and dad and playing in the big garden all day. We need to take her on a trail run to see how she would be for a long weekend and go from there.  So, in conclusion, we will be taking at least one third of our pack with us!

So, 2022 will see a lot of research, a lot of planning and preparation work to make the next stage of our adventure come into fruition. Matt is very much in charge of making sure the yacht is ready. There are some key things we’re short off and that we need to get as a priority. We are looking to get the majority of our stuff second hand to save as much money as we can. Take a look at the list below to see what big items we need to purchase for this trip, and let us know if you can help us out with anything!!

• Manual or electric anchor windlass – at the moment, we don’t have either. We are planning to spend most of our time at anchor and only moor in marinas, when necessary, maybe once a week or so, so an anchor windlass is quite high on our priority list. Hauling in the anchor by hand isn’t the end of the world, but it is far from ideal. 

UPDATE – We have a windlass and an electric one at that!  A lot of the components are BRAND new and it is better than we would have ever imagined. We thought we would be lucky to find a manual one but an electric is definitely a bonus. We have to install It ourselves, and decide where we want the switches to go, in the cockpit or at the front with the anchor locker.  Decisions decisions. 

• A small outboard – this is for the tender. We already have the tender complete with oars but we need an outboard. We are ideally looking for one with an internal fuel tank, no more than 4bhp.  We need to be able to haul it on and off the tender and pop it onto the storage plate on the back of Albatros.

• Wind Meter – when we bought Albatros, she did and does have a wind meter.  We cannot get it working. We need to get up the mast and have a look at the electrics of it, or if we can find a decent second hand one, we will get another. 

• Fridge – at the moment, we use a cool box that’s not designed for long term use, just the odd picnic or two. We’ve had quite a bit of discussion over the fridge. Jess would ideally like one that opens from the front, like a conventional fridge but this might not be very practical. We are looking for a box fridge, but this would probably be a brand new purchase rather than second hand so we know it works and carries guarantees 

• Safety equipment – we are already quite well equipped. We have great life jackets each, a life raft and safety ladder but we would like to get some flares. We will also investigate what safety equipment will be needed for the dogs, although I have heard life jackets aren’t the best. Would love to know your opinions. 

• Diesel and water carriers – we know our diesel tank is around 35 litres.  We would like to have at least one spare one full all the time.  We never want to be without diesel.  The other thing is fresh water. That famous saying  “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink” springs to mind. We only have a small water tank, and we’re not actually sure how big it is, so we would like to carry at least 50 litres of spare water. When we get to the clearer, warmer water of the Med, we will use it more and bathe in the sea and use sea water for cooking and washing up (we don’t have a water maker, and cannot justify the thousands of pounds one would cost) 

• Charts and other navigational equipment – we have already subscribed to Navionics, an online chart navigational system. You just type in where you want to go, and it plots it all for you. But you can’t beat paper charts. We would like to have backup paper charts, so we know if we struggle for power and can’t charge the iPad for Navionics we won’t be in trouble. The other thing we are keeping an eye out for is sailing guides for each country in the Med we plan to travel to. We need a comprehensive list of anchorages and the rules of the sea in particular countries.

The reason for the big arrow... Matt has ALWAYS wanted to visit Monaco.  We probably won't sail there though, not sure if we could afford the mooring on our shoe string budget, but even if we are somewhere close by, we will get the train or bus into Monaco and check it out!

Luckily, Albatros already has other things we might need such as a depth meter, GPS, wind turbine, solar panels, auto helm and we bought the tender a few months ago. These are just the large things we need in order to make our passage both more comfortable and safer and these are the bits and bobs Matts in charge of (quite a lot, isn’t it!) 

When we first bought Albatros, we quickly designated our roles.  Matts was always to deal with things outside (and although not outside, the engine and control panels) and Jess was to make it homely, organised and a functional space.  Jess’s main task is storage solutions and making sure everything has its own place and stays there. A yacht isn’t the most practical of spaces and to access any storage you have to remove the sofas back rests, lift the wooden supports, remove the seat cushions and remove the wooden lid to be able to access the storage compartments below. We will have a traffic light system for storage and deep store will be used for things like spare engine parts that we don’t often need, spare clothes, food, and anything we don’t need to get to on a weekly basis. It’s all about being organised! If you have any tips for us, let us know, we will be grateful for any advice!

So many places to see! We havent decided yet, and it depends how easy the process will be, but we might also pay a visit to Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovinia and Montenegro. These are some beautiful coastlines and would be a shame to miss them because their not stereotypical tourist spots. After Italy, id have thought our next stop would be Greece!  I expect we will spend most of our time in Greece, its easily accessible, beautiful, full of culture and cheap! I'm not going to map where we would lie to see in Greece, because frankly its far too much and the map would end up being 100% orange arrows!

The other thing we want to do, although not important from a safety point of view, is to redesign the kitchen, the bathroom, and the chart table area. 

The bathroom – this space isn’t particularly practical, and it is hard to use the toilet. There is a very large sink in the bathroom which is very unnecessary, and we would like to make it look a bit more modern as well as practical. Our plans are to remove the sink, cut part of the existing sink surface away and put in a countertop sink. We will only be using this for washing hands and brushing teeth, so we have found a small sink that would be perfect. Depending on how much weight it adds, we would like to tile the sink surface as well as the back to the toilet to make it more practical for cleaning and everyday use. For the bathroom, we need new lino on the floor, and we are going to modernise the space by painting it a light colour. The wood aboard is very dark and there’s only a few small windows so we would like to brighten the space up and make it more homely. We did question at one point if we should put in a shower, but we are tight on space and water and this will be where our clothes will be stored and cannot make it 100% waterproof, so we decided against it. A bucket on the deck will have to do!

The kitchen – we have already done a little work to the kitchen. We have added a small oven and moved the sink, which we have decided to move back again.  We put the sink in the corner to make more surface space for chopping and cooking, but being in the corner, it isn’t very practical, and Matt has to bend down to do the washing up. Again, depending on weight, we would like to install a solid wood worktop, remove the plate holders that are at the back of the surface. For us, these are a waste of space and could be put to better use. There is a cupboard right in the corner, which is very hard to access, so we are thinking of putting in a lid so we can access the cupboard from the top rather than scrambling inside. We are also wanting to paint some of this area, we need to repair the gimbal on the hob as it’s a bit stiff and rework the kitchen so it’s a more practical area.  

   

These are just some of the improvements we have made so far. We cant wait to get Albatros even more practical and perfect for a long journey

    

Our final big redesign is the chart table area.  As with any traditional yacht, this is a functional space designed for chart plotting and where all the switch panel and VHF live. These will stay here but the desk spaces is a slanted table with storage underneath. At the moment, the desk doesn’t fully open and its unusable. We have decided to remove this desk as we’ve never used it and make it into a flat surface that we could maybe put a TV of projector on. There is loads of storage in a 6th bunk under the cockpit, again, we will never use this as a bed but it is a vast area that can be used for storage. 

In the saloon, we just want to remove the old vinyl that was badly applies, maybe add some wallpaper to brighten the space and paint some of the areas. We are looking for a fresh airy boat. We would like to add a couple of touches such as plants and some home comforts. Nice and simple to pack away when we leave anchorage. 

    

This is the after and before of the kitchen. We will probably be moving the sink back... oops!

Finally, the bedroom, this space doesn’t need much doing to it. The odd shaped bed means we need to make a couple of bedsheets and at the moment the cabin lining is carpet. Although it is quite cosy and comfortable, we would like to reline the space and again, make it a bit more modern and clean looking. We need to put a shelf in Matts side of the bed so we can have a bit of extra surface space. As with the rest of the boat, we will look at putting in some wallpaper or painting to add some colour and make it homely. 

So, just those could of bits and the interior will be done. Its going to take quite a bit of work and planning and tis isn’t including making storage solutions and like I said earlier, making sure everything has its own place and it goes back away after its use. 

There are a couple more things we NEED to do before we leave. We would like to haul Albatros out of the water again, check the state of her hull and reapply antiflow if needed. We need to install and inverter, check all her electrics and as advised, carry out a power audit. The last thing we want, is to run out of power or realise our inverter is too small and we cant do simple things like charge the laptop. We would also like to get some kind of app that tells us the state of the batteries, how much power is going in and out, could be a very handy tool. Another really important thing to do, is get the engine serviced and a fuel gauge installed. This will have to be done by the mechanics at the marina, but other than this, we are planning on doing the work ourselves.  

  

So much brighter and airier!

If you’re reading this and you realise you have a lovely little outboard sitting in your garage of some fuel or water carriers, let us know! We have started our shopping already and are looking out for the best things we can get hold of for our budget. 

Only a few things to do then! We will keep you updated on our progress, but there is so much to do in so little time.