Heads Progress

This picture just came through showing the sink and avonite in Midnight Sky in our aft heads (ensuite bathroom for non sailors). It's always great to see design decisions we have taken come to life!

We will get to position the taps and the toothbrush tumbler and soap dispenser soon.

Post Holiday Catching Up

We have been away in the Philippines Diving over Christmas and New Year, so have been a bit tardy with our Askari actions.

Us diving in our Ugly Xmas Rashies and Santa Hats at Apo Island on Christmas Day

So last night we went through everything on our list of things to and made sure that our Project Manager had our thoughts for his return to work today.

On the list:

- A decision about the heated towel rail - we are worried about the impact on the perspex shower door and the amount of space it will take up. We have asked for a sketch and other options. 

- Location of SSB controller and modem - we think these are going to go in the aft cabin however we need to ensure there's no interference from the autopilot.

- Review quotation for fitted bedding in 'satin striped bamboo' as seen at the boat show. A few changes required. We had bamboo on R2 and found it really hard wearing, easy to care for and super comfy.

- EPRIB choices - we did some research and found these are cheaper in Australia and this will be easier to configure with the aussie system so ordered a KTI manual GPS EPRIB as well as two PLBs. It was hard to decide whether to have an automatic system or not, however we concluded that the KTI battery life, GPS channels and transmit time swung it. 

We are also packing up all our dive gear now to go to Askari as Andrew has a business trip to the UK next week so can take it with him. A full progress report should follow very soon from his visit to Wroxham.

120 days to go!

A Christmas Message

One of the things we love about this project is that it that Askari is being built just for us and the guys that are working on her know us. When we were last in the UK we left a message on the bulk head to thank the team for building our beautiful boat, and we just received an email with pictures to approve the chart table layout and got this included.....

We like the chart table layout but LOVE the Christmas message.

Shipping News

We have had highs and lows this week - lows being Andrew having a lot to deal with at work and Carolyn riding over a huge venomous snake on her bike (luckily it didn't attack - but it did make me stop and think you never know where the risks are in life). The high's being attending a cocktail party with our fab new Prime Minister but more importantly shipping stuff to Askari.....

The shipping drama has been ongoing for a while. We had a great AB rib and Yamaha 15HP outboard that we thought we'd like to ship as they were nearly new, but it all just got too hard trying to a) find someone who would take them and b) wouldn't charge more than the replacement cost for doing so.

In the end we sold both and turned to Seven Seas Worldwide to ship a few things; mainly treasures from ReVision II, including Andrew's precious boat tools, galley equipment, some bedding and a few pairs of shoes - Andrew didn't know about the last one til now (of course every girl needs a pair of pink patent high heels on her boat). Oh and of course the spinnaker that Andrew traded for our kayaks and a bit of cash with friends - always the Yorkshireman looking for a deal!

Simon loading the boxes

So far Seven Seas have been excellent and very easy to deal with, so I hope the stuff all arrives okay - apparently it's going on a ship that leaves Fremantle next week and we'll get to track it online.

Video Update - 150 days to go!

It's always such a highlight when we get a new video from Oyster and now that she's really starting to shape and we can see some of the fitout decisions we have made being put into practice it's even more exciting.

We received a video overnight from John at Oyster and as it's a bit rainy today Carolyn has had her first play with iMovie to turn it into this.......