Tue 3 Jul

People say “Cruising is just fixing boats in exotic places”, and I can definitely see why. This was our first day in the marina, and we spend most of the day plowing through our todo list.

The biggest thing for today was to install the macerator pump. Its a pump that takes whatever is in the waste water tank (I’ll leave that up to your imagination), scrambles it up and pumps it out over board. We had one that came with the boat, but it never worked, and when we finally got around to trying it, all it did was blow a few breakers. So we installed a new pump, which required origami folding myself under the sink in the bathroom for the best part of the day, all in what felt like 40 degrees. Fun!

We also managed to repair our VHF, which basically just had a bad connection in the antenna cable. On our passage back from Mallorca we had to use the little handheld VHF, and it is a bit unnerving to hear the coast guard announce  “navigational warning” and then not being able to hear the details because the reception is so bad.

Apart from fixing stuff on the boat, it feels weird being back in a marina. So much luxury! Its funny to see how our routines have changed already, not having to save every drop of water and every bit of electricity. We’ll enjoy it while it lasts, but are both looking forward to living “on the hook” soon again!