Sorry the blog dried up last summer. We spent a very pleasnt time cruising around Turkey and had a fun time with visits from Jila and Andy Peacock with Hugh Laing, Dale and Janet Crisp and Kate Pocock, and Sam and Gilly McBride. Also Henry and Gu Bo and Vanessa came but it poured with rain with a huge storm so we were marina bound very sadly for them. Tim Jenkinson and Susie came for a brief stay in between the rain in october and we saw for the first time snow on the surronding mountains. Winds blew at about 30knots. Baringo was put on the hard in mid October. We are back in Turkey now in Feb checking on the work being done on Baringo over the winter. The boat is in a mess! All the old kit- generator, battery charger, all batteries etc etc- has been removed but nothing new in place yet. It is promised for next week! However, some other jobs such as putting on the copper antifouling, new cutlass bearing, new/ cleaned seacocks have been done. The rudder has been removed and we are waiting the new lower rudder bearing from Jafa. They have removed the toe rail and all the stanchions and a new toe rail is being made from teak and the stanchions refitted to ensure no more annoying small leaks (coming via the stanchions) into the lockers. The mainsail has been removed and is being cleaned of the red sea dust. ALso we now have LED lights throughout. We are awaiting the new solar panels which are flexible and will go ontop of the bimini. So we hope with a new reliable generator, bigger battery charger, solar panels and the wind generator we will have enough amps to power every thing we need without worrying. We realise that electricity generating capacity is important when sailing non-stop as the auto-pilot, fridge, chart plotter and other navigation instruements, and lights all guzzle amps.
We hope to have the boat back in the water by the end of april with all the new kit and then set off to Rhodes, crete, the ionian sea, sicily, sardinia, Balearic islands, Gibralter and then down to the Canary islands well in time for the ARC rally across the atlantic leaving November 25th. We have been invited by our friend Hugh Laing to join the Royal Yacht Squadron rally in Menorca in september which should be fun. We look forward to friends joining us hopefully for various legs during our trip across the med. Blog will restart in earnest in April, written by the senior author Julia!