Procrastination Rules

In September, as new boat owners, Dave and I mooched round the Southampton Boat Show looking for ways not to spend money. This, as it turns out, is practically impossible since one can spend anything from a few pounds to multiple millions depending on your bank balance. Our combined overdrafts just about permit us to have a sandwich and even that was stretching the budget some. I did manage to get a Garmin Montana 600 handheld satnav which, as well as being very portable is also waterproof and has an NMEA connection facility so it will read out to the cockpit making navigation easier. I got it for under £400 and since it'll double up for use in the canoe and is my own purchase it didn't need a pow-wow.

Perhaps We Could Add A Balcony To A Coromandel?

Having got Missy Moto to Swanage and found a spot close by to park her on the trailer we decided to launch her in mid to late September, for the last few weeks of the season to try our meagre skills and see if she floats - it's by no means certain! This was a cue for the peculiar British weather to blow it's proverbials off for the best part of three weeks thus knocking firmly on the head any thought of three novices putting to sea in an unknown hull with an unknown engine and a strange rig so we decided to park her up for the winter. Whilst disappointing, this meant that we had some more time to fit a bilge pump and make sure the electrics were working.

She's parked on a farm site nearby (5 minutes walk) and, once tarpaulined up, is looking quite snug. Of course it didn't last. The indomitable wind got up on its hind legs, rubbed the flimsy tarp over anything sharper than a billiard ball and wore nicely aerodynamic holes all over it so a new more substantial one will be the order of the day end of season. Ho hum, the learning curve continues.

Missy Goes On Safari

On the up side, I had been perusing engine makes and types to replace the two-stroke antique she arrived with and had arrived at one of two options. The ever-reliable but expensive Honda four stroke or a Tohatsu 6hp sail-drive model which seemed much cheaper but stil had a very good reputation. The Tohatsu brought the price down to a more modest £1300 (Hondas were up around the £2k mark) which would still have to wait. Then, one rainy day, browsing the marine section of eBay, what should peep over the parapet but the very same Tohatsu 6hp four stroke, six months old and only in Salisbury a mere 40 miles away. I bid expecting to get it for around £900 which would be good but in the event the 'hammer' fell at under £500, 490 to be precise, and to cap it all the engine is in Westbourne, less than 10 miles as the crow flies. What a result! Again I've bought without full consultation but Dave and I pick up the engine and hear it run sweet as a nut so there are no major objections from the stalls.

This was all at the tail end of 2011 and it's now mid-February 2012. We're eagerly anticipating a launch mid-April to mid-May and just need to fit the bilge pump and check the electrics. I'd firmly resolved to attend to the head lining and some other small cosmetic stuff but the road to hell and all that, so none of this is done and Missy Moto has been tucked away under her deteriorating tarpaulin waiting for our tender attentions in the early Spring which is almost here.

Unable to locate the mooring buoy, despite having paid for it and it's attendant ground tackle, I have obtained a set of GPS coordinates for it and, on a fine day with no ice on the water fully intend to take out the new satnav (Garmin Montana 600) in the canoe and pinpoint it so we don't lose it! Always assuming it's there in the first place. Dave has not been slow in pointing out that buying an unseen mooring from a guy 'down the club' is probably not my wisest move to date. It's not quite as bad as it sounds though but I can see his point.

And so it goes...