Lee cloths for the bunks in the saloon. They will, hopefully, keep us in our beds no matter how much the yacht rolls. I have made them out of spray hood fabric. To fasten them to the bunks I have used spray hood pipe tracks and sewed a rope into a canal at the fabrics bottom. At the top they are held by aluminium tubes attached in the ends by custom-made mountings.

They have arrived! Finally, the things I ordered from the U.S. are here. But to get them I had to pay an additional fee of about 1900 Sek, sales tax, I didn't have a clue about that. Anoying, now we only saved about 800 Sek. But alright, I was happy until I checked out the handheld VHF. It wasn't the one I ordered. This one was a newer model with less battery life and it didn't have an extra alkaline battery case included, which was the whole point of buying a handheld VHF. We are going to have it in the grab bag for emergency use in the liferaft, where it isn't possible to charge it by 12 V. I have sent an email to the American company asking them to solve this problem, let's see what they answer. / Captain Ingerup

Today we completed the bilge pump installations. We have put them in the locker behind the mast, which is rather tricky to access anyway. And above them we will store the grab bag secured, but easily unattached, to the mast. The hoses is led to the bigger clothing locker, where they are fixed on a custom-made connector leading to the through-hull fitting.

The watermaker had some rust on the engine so i decided to spray paint it. The result, as you can see, is quite good. We have now installed the watermaker under the port side bunk in the saloon, but hoses are still to be attached.

Yesterday I received a ship notification saying that my package from the U.S. is on its way. I'm very curious to see the things.

I have also received some emails about the LPG availability in the Caribbean. It seems like Camping Gaz is available in the Antilles, but not in Cuba or Bermuda. No answers from the Bahamas or the Azores. But we have decided to go for mixed bottles, two Camping Gaz bottles and two (2 kg) Swedish bottles holding propane. Better being on the safe side. Both bottle types uses the same regulator and we will bring an adapter, for the Swedish bottles, that will make it possible to fill them in the Caribbean.

/ Captain Ingerup

...why this exam nerves coming up before every single exam?! For the moment I am studying Management Control Systems and it's indeed very interesting, but studying for an exam has never been much fun. Unfortunately this particular exam can be very tricky, wish me luck on Thursday, I really don't have time to retake it, and especially not on board Cantare.. /First mate

Today I have finished making the stainless steel washers. I have removed the plastic cover from the old ones earlier but I think I will wait with the plastic work on the new ones until it's a bit warmer.

I have also made a wood dummy of our new extra diesel tank which we are going to put behind the engine and under the wheel pedestal. It will probably hold about 90 liters. This together with our original tank of 70 liters will give us a reach of about 800 NM. / Captain Ingerup

In Sweden we have one system, in Europe there's another (and almost every European country seems to have one of their own aswell) and in the Caribbean they have the American type. In Sweden we use propane, in Europe butane and Caribbean mostly propane. Which shall we choose? The trickiest part is the size, we want to have them in a secure closed container with ventilation, close to the stove, that way they end up in our cockpit locker which has a small entry. The french Camping Gaz bottles of 3 kg have a very attractive size, they have a diameter of about 20 cm and we can easily fit four of them in the locker. They also seem to be the standard from Denmark to the Canaries. But...what do we do when we reach the Caribbean? Can we exchange or refill them there? Some say it's possible in the French islands. Since we are planning to cruise the Bahamas and Cuba the last two months, where it's unlikely to find butane, will our four bottles last until we reach the Azores? Today I have sent emails to the marinas in Rodney Bay (St. Lucia), Nassau (Bahamas) and Horta (Azores) asking for information about the availability of Camping Gaz. How long one bottle lasts is a big question, and searching the Internet I find different answers. I guess we just have to wait and see. / Captain Ingerup

The boat show was a real energy booster, and after a few recreational days in Gothenburg I took the train back to my parents and got busy with new ideas. I have, with help from my dad, built a tiny water storage tank. It holds 10 liters and has transparent plastic at one end. Why have we built such a small tank? In the bow, under the bunks, we have a water tank of 110 liters, but there is no visual way of knowing how much water there's in it. Thinking about the installation of the watermaker and how to know when to turn it of we came up with this idea. The water produced by the watermaker is led in to the top of the small tank, which is connected in the bottom with the bigger one, since the watermaker produces about 5 liters per hour we can easily see it fill up and make sure that we have as much water as possible but not more than the tanks can hold.

I am also doing a lot of other things on the yacht, changing the through hull fittings, changing the seal of our manual bilge pump. Making lee cloths for the bunks in the salon and some other smart storage solutions for the forward cabin. Photos will come when they are finished.

Today I have ordered a new extra GPS plotter, handheld GPS for the grab bag, handheld VHF for the grab bag and eletronical charts for the Caribbean from a U.S. company. Hopefully they will arrive safe and sound next week. If it works out we will have saved about 3000 SEK.
/ Captain Ingerup

• Waterproof grabbag (a red one) and a 20 l waterproof bag for cameras and valuables when going ashore.
• Wetsuits 3 mm, might come in handy before we reach the Caribbean and for long snorkling and diving sessions.
• Snorkel and mask for Sofia.
• Foul-weather clothing, the trousers are specifically designed for woman, they call it zipped drop seat system, it seems genius. We will tell you more about how it works when we have tried it in real conditions.
• Waterproof speakers for the cockpit.

We didn't buy any security equipment like liferaft, EPIRB, inflatable lifejackets, VHF or spare GPS for two reasons. Some of the things may become cheaper the longer we wait and we also want to be certain that we pick the right make and modell since they are our lifesavers.