Live Update: August 4, 2022 (Patreon)

Hello Everyone :)

Mads has been chugging along on projects this week. Here's a quick Boat work update.

Mads has finished the autopilot cowling for the aft cockpit locker. It sure is one shiny spiffy-looking box, if I say so myself! The cowling is installed in the aft cockpit locker, and the fit is excellent. The autopilot is nice and protected, and now we can start using that locker for storage. That brings me to Mads current project, which is a shelf to store our dive tanks inside the aft cockpit locker. He made a shelf to fit both tanks. The shelf will then get through bolted inside the locker, and we will use ratcheted straps to secure them to the shelf. I love when everything has a place on the boat :) In the picture below, you can see a dry fit of the tank shelf and the autopilot cowling in place inside the locker.

This week Mads has also installed three USB chargers in the cockpit. One on each side of the dodger where we usually sit, and one in the aft of the cockpit where the engine control box is. We never seem to have enough charging ports aboard Athena, but I think this will undoubtedly help :) You will also notice a blue jerrycan for water in the back of this photo. The tank is for an upcoming project Mads is working on to prepare us for the Atlantic crossing. We want to have a few emergency jerrycans of water, and we are thinking of finding a spot for those in the aft cockpit locker... if there is room ;)

Plymouth has become quite the home base for Mads. He has met so many great people, including a few Patreons, which is always such a treat for us :) Mads was lucky enough to get invited aboard a friend's boat this past weekend for the SailGP race (Mads wanted to say Thank you so much to Stuart for such a lovely day). A viewer sent us this photo below; they spotted Mads while they were watching the race on T.V. If you watch Sailing Cadoha, you may have spotted Carly and Dom too :)

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to say hello too. We love meeting you all, and it is so nice meeting a friendly face when we are in a new port. It's why Mads started this all in the first place, after all :)

I return to Athena on the 11th, and we want to shove off as soon as we get a weather window. First, we will have to do an extensive cleaning (get the last remnants of man glitter), provision, and pack everything away. Then, our current plan is a jump to Falmouth and a big jump to A Coruna in Spain. We'll cover all our plans in a future update.

As always, thank you so much for your support and for following along :) Especially keeping Mads company while I've been gone, I know he has been extremely grateful for the breaks in all the boat work.

And for those wondering, my sister had the baby :) Eleanor Maria 7lbs 9oz, 19.5 in. 7/22/22. She is the most adorable, precious future sailor I have ever seen. But I may be biased ;)

You will be hearing from Mads soon, and I'll talk to you next week :) Have a good rest of the week and weekend! I can’t wait to get back to Mads and Athena and start this next adventure!

Ava