CRUISING AGAIN 2015.

So we are now on the Brittany coast of France. The weather is good (some sunshine..) and we are settled down into a cruising rhythm.

We spent a month in Plymouth Mayflower marina waiting for our stern arch to be built. It was a busy time for the yachting industry in the area, because it was the Easter period and most "yachties" have this habit of getting boating fever as soon as Easter long weekend looms on the horizon. In addition lots of the workforce take their holidays.
Our arch was built by a Stainless steel metal works in Queen Annes Marina in East side of Plymouth. We had been speaking with them since summer last year, and had narrowed our options down to choosing them as the provider.
They required 4 weeks to make the arch so we booked into Mayflower marina for a month from the 18th March until the 18th April... On the 16th April had it fitted.
Soon after the installation we bought a wind turbine (generator) and solar panels.
In the meantime we had contracted a rigging company to build an inner stay so that we could use storm jib and inner staysails. Then just to be more extravagant we bought a spinnaker pole with related stowage track and hardware.
With all the extra work our stay in Mayflower ran into the month of May. In fact we didn't sail out of the marina until Saturday 9th May 2015...

THE STERN ARCH
Here are some pictures of our arch.

The famous stern arch enables us to have a wind generator, solar panels and some kind of dinghy lifting davits

THE WIND GENERATOR and SOLAR PANELS

REBUILT THE BIMINI TO FIT THE ARCH

We had to cut and resow the bimini so as to join the arch forward side.

NEW ROCNA ANCHOR (33KG !)

One of the best anchors available ..

NEW INNER FORE STAY WITH 'WICHARD' ADJUSTER

Extremely expensive bit of rigging.

COMPLETED THE WATER MAKER INSTALLATION

Pump and filters in the bilges and the unit itself under the settee bench

Including some detailed rework of leaking parts...