...and not a moment to be lost

Once the Blue Peter is flying, everyone knows there is not a moment to be lost. Cruise preparation is not very exciting, so we have not been posting regularly (for your sake). But, on October 2 we took some photos for a "typical prep day" post.

We have turned out and inventoried (and cleaned) every 'storage location' on Raconteur. It turns out there are 84. Surprising what you find in some of these holes. But, now we know what's there and where it is. There are 914 unique item/location combinations.

This is the aft end of the banquette on the starboard side of the saloon. It's where we store many of the spares and repair materials. There is not a particular organizing principle inside (except that whatever you want is under at least 5 other things).

This is the tiny banquette in the forward cabin. It is actually pretty deep and has maybe half of our tools, including most of the electrical tools (voltmeter and such).

This is the port lazarette in the cockpit. It contains all of our dock lines (12), hoses, power cables, and a bunch of other things including the dinghy anchor and engine hoist.

You get the picture. The whole job took more than a week (interspersed with many other things) but it's great to have it done.

October 2 was the first calm sunny day in a while, so we took the opportunity to mark the anchor chains. It's amazing how hard it is to estimate how much chain is out when you are in the process of anchoring. The main anchor chain is 200 feet long, although in most anchorages we are within the first 50 feet.

While the paint was drying, we went up the mast to inspect and tape a few things, and place a line to raise the new radar reflector.

Pretty good view from up here!