Over the last few years I’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and a fair bit of money into getting Trouper set up for extended cruising. We’ve installed a new engine, a large Lithium Iron Phosphate battery bank with a large alternator to charge it, and a hostable array of solar panels. Our plan has been to spend a couple of months away this summer, partly as an end in itself and also to test out how we might like spending months at a time on the boat at some point in the future.
The last few weeks have seen a slightly frenzied sprint to the line. Inevitably I finished some parts of this this morning as we got ready to leave the marina. Last week saw the very just in time delivery of the new bed linen, the renewal of the sprayhood canvas and some fitted cockpit cushions. The previous few weeks have seen some repainting of the coachroof’s blue stripe and the fabrication of a bracket to hold a starlink mini dish on the stern of the boat. Completing the starlink install, and reassembling the outboard motor’s mounting bracket (with some new bits) were the last jobs this morning.
We slipped our berth at 1515 today (29 June) and left through Birdham’s lock at free flow (the top of the tide where both inner and outer gates are open at once). We motored a whole mile to anchor in the harbour in the Thorney channel. We aim to leave at about 0530 tomorrow for Cherbourg – I’ve send the French PAF their entry form and completed the UK online departure notification – so hopefully all the admin will go smoothly.
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