Well we've been in A Coruna for nearly a month. When we first got here, we decided that we would like to have the Davits remade so they support the dinghy better. The first marina there was a metal worker who said he would help, but then never showed up or returned Blair's calls. Here are the first Davits Blair made.

We moved to another Marina accoss the bay in the industrial section of the city. The owner said he could do it, and then decided that it really needed another Aluminum fabrication company. Since it was summer, naturally that owner was on holiday, so he wasn't available for another week, then his team was on vacation for the next week. When he finally brought the parts last week, they we the wrong dimentions in several different directions, so he needed to order new aluminum, and start all over again. He said it would take 4 days.  

We are still waiting for these parts and have our fingers crossed that this time, they will be correct and we can get on our way. 

Here is Silver Moon Getting Hauled out

SO... What have we been doing for a month in A Coruna? 

Blair got terribly ill for about a week, and had vertigo. He thinks it was a crytal that got dislodged from his inner ear. He's hit is head more times than he can count, and thinks that is what caused the nausea. He's still walking around a bit like a drunken sailor, but he's much improved since 2 weeks ago.

I've done a bit of exploring around on the city's rental bikes, but other than that we've spent most of our days working on the boat, and provisioning while we're in a fairly big city. A Coruna has the best bread. Much better than the baguettes of Franch. The bread is light an airy. So we ejoyed good bread while in Spain. 

We cleaned the outside of the boat, which hadn't been cleaned since we moved on in June. It was covered in salt and dirt. Blair polished the stainless steal. This may seem like a simple job, but you need to find all the right cleaning products for each of the items. We installed our stay sail. It's the smaller sail that is used in storm situations.

Since we had access to a large clean indoor area of the boat yard, we got our Parasail out and stuffed it in the sock that it belongs in. (It's like a Spinnaker only better) It's much bigger than we expected and we were suprised we were able to get it in the sock and then into a much smaller stuff bag for storage. We got all the parts to started to rig it. Once we get it up and sailing, I will share photos. 

Blair had his Solar installation inspected by an electrian to confirm that it was installed correctly. While the elctrcian was here we had him install an additional charger so that when the motor is running it will charge the lithimum batteries. This should set us up great, as we have Solar power, a hydrogenerator when the boat is sailing, and we have a way to charge all the house batteries when the motor is running. 

We built and installed 3 stainless steel pipes from the dog house to the arch. These will make it safer to walk from the deck into the cockpit as they used as handholds. We will also use these to help support shade material for when we get to warmer locations. The middle pipe is used to hold up the bimini, so when it rains the water doesn't get trapped in the middle of the shade bimini.

Blair was able to stop the leak in sea cock from the watermaker.

We purchased all the parts needed to hook up the BBQ. Since we have a  US BBQ and the butane bottle is from France, naturally they don't connect easily, so we needed to get a few different connectors to make it work. I still haven't used it, but can't wait to use it when we get to warmer temperatures. 

We built and installed woodboxes under the V-birth bed from more storage. We took photos of everything in storage, and I put together a digital photo album that we can refer to when we can't remember where we put something. 

Blair designed & made a lee-board and it attaches to our table and keep us in the settee while doing long passages. He used wood instead of cloth,  so we can just store it under the settee while not in use. I thought this was a great idea. 

The metal fabricator wanted the boat out of the water so it was easier to install the new davit system, so we hauled the boat on September 3, and put her on the hard. 

Since the boat was already out of the water, Blair did a light cleaning of her haul. 

Blair put bottom paint on the Watt & Sea Hydrogenerator. 

We painted the bow thruster and prop with Prop Speed, this will help protect them, so they run smoother and don't get growth on them, helping us move faster through the water.

Naturally we had the Davits made. This is what they look like now .

• Things I learned:
• How to use Google Earth to measure distances for future passages. 
• How to use Predict Wind Offshore, so we can download all the weather and not have to have Starlink running as much.
• More about my Garmin Inreach, so we have a better back up to our main chart plotter and can use this incase of emergency.

Blair spent time on our Radar, so he knows how to set up alarms that will let us know if we're too close to another boat while at sea. 

We purchased a GoPro camera, so we can not only take photos of the beautiful places we go, but we can see under the boat incase of emergency. (I'll ahve to learn how to use this too)

We went through and organized all our safety equiptment and medicine to make sure we had all the first aid, medicine and equiptment needed for our long passages offshore. 

We've scheduled our Safety Inspection with the ARC+ Rally organizers, so that we have everything prepared for our Atlantic Crossing. 

We celebrated my 60th Birthday. They even had the same dessert that we had for our Wedding Cake. Liliko Cheese Cake. Naturally I just had to have some. Here is a photo from my birthday of the fantastic bread of Spain. 

We accomplished quite a bit, in the 5 weeks. We even met a fellow ARC+ Sailor Tom & his wife Sandy on his boat Velocity. It was wonderful to meet a fellow American who was also preparing his boat for this long jouney across an ocean.