I completed the 5 mile walk on Monday to find the stainless fabricator, (I actually found a different shop than the one recommended by my friend Mark) Very little English spoken but I had made a sketch of what was required and they said it would be ready on Wednesday. I left it until Friday – another long walk and guess what – it will be ready tomorrow!!!. I will wait until Wednesday hopefully it will be ready then. I did manage to find some gas pipe fittings which enable me to finish the installation of the Gas Shut-off Valve and Sensors.

My friend Paul has a modification to his anchor windlass to stop the chain from jumping off the gypsy. He has an identical windlass to me and has allowed me to unbolt the modified roller so that I can get an identical part made by the fabricator. I stripped out my windlass and discovered that there were no penny washers or backing plate on the bolts and they had nearly pulled through the fibreglass shelf.

I have ordered the additional Solar Panels – 3x95watt, hopefully they should arrive by the end of the week. When I can get the original panels back up (when the fabricator has finished the support bar) I will have 695watt of panels which should give me an actual power input of 30A/hr peak into the batteries.

The weather has been quite nice this last week, a little rain but mainly sunny (and windy) The view from Freya is a lot nicer than last week.