This picture was shot at October 25th at the club-island
A new heater that takes the heat from the engine is installed, and the old heater is fixed. Both are tested and now works great.
I bought the first books and charts for the trip and started to plan the trip more precisely.
I order a GPS-reciever and a new hood.
I start to make these www-pages.
Bibbi II only have one fueltank of 140 liters. I will need one more tank. But were to put it, and who shall make it? Planning starts.
I borrow one minibicycle from my mother to take along on the trip, and buy another one. Now I have two bicycles to bring along. I think that will be of great pleasure and help.
Interior picture of Bibbi II in October.
On October 25th it's -2° centigrades in the air and +8° centigrades in the water. Within a few hours there's more than 15° centigrade inside the boat, so the new heaters are working perfectly well. It's a fabulous day that I spend on the boat on our club-island.
At the end of the month I have a friend on board to make preparations for the new fuel-tank.
Bibbi II on land,
at Tångudden in Gothenburg,
in mid November.
By mid November Bibbi is taken out of the water. After that I take home all things and demount many panels and instruments.
I also order a lot of equipment and spareparts.
It's now the real maintenance-work starts. But I fly off on a business-trip to the USA(only in Swedish - though!) for a week, when I'm best needed by the boat!
This is how the interior is in december with the dashboard away. Quite a difference!
Now the real work on the boat starts. I dismount practically every piece of equipment and bring it home, and start to refurbish on many places. The weather is fairly good so the work can go on as planned.
From now on some small new equipment and refurbished pieces are mounted.
During the holidays I varnish many interior details at home.
The whole passengerside of the interior in the doghouse has been dissassembled. It was the only way to mount a new dieseltank below.
In the aft cabin there are new shelves in the wardrobe at right.
The floor is lifted so I can reach the propeller shaft.
The propeller shaft and the rudder axle are tightened.
I clean up in the aft cabin - it's ready to be loaded with holiday-gear!
At home I varnish a lot of interior details from all over the boat. In the boat I mount new interior lamps in the doghouse and the fore cabin. I mount the new dashboard as a test. The instruments are still at home. A lot of other details are also mounted.
The aft cabin.
I start February by grinding and varnishing details from the doghouse. The refurbished indoor panels are mounted on the portside. I also mount new freshwaterfilters, and grind the outside of the wooden details of the doghouse.
The new dashboard is mounted with all the instruments, and the new GPS-navigator works fine - well at least when the boat is on shore!
The new dieseltank is mounted too. There are millions of details to think about thoroughly when mounting the tank, so it takes more time then expected.
I also grind details in the doghouse. Now I'm waiting for a few days of dry weather before I can varnish these details. The weather is good som most details are finished during February.
Leif helped me with the new tank.
Bosse Hörfelt will join me during a week of the trip. Here he asks his wife Birgitta for advice while planning.
Bengt is going to join me for a couple of weeks on the trip. Here he tests the captains seat in early March.
Bengt joined me the cold first Saturday of March to finish some work that needed two men - one on the outside and the other on the inside of the boat. Afterwards he and his wife Maria invited me and my wife to a superb dinner at their house.
The following Sunday was splendid! The sun was shining and it was more than 20°C inside the boat. I finished a lot of small details inside the boat, but the main work was to paint the bottom.
In fact - after this weekend the interior is finished and only needs some final washing off before I can load all the things necessary for the trip.
And the exterior only needs polishing - that's all! :-)
Saturday the 14th I polish the whole exterior of the boat and clean up the front cabin!
At March 18 the boat was launched and I made a first test at sea. Everything seemed to work OK. That day the last pieces of equipment was mounted too.
Saturday the 21st was fine. The sun shining and not much wind so Ingrid and I made a trip to the club island - Brustholmarna. This trip was an important test of much of the equipment, and for the first time I used the GPS-navigator. Sure this one needs more learning-time for me to be of practical use onboard! But we had a great time in the sun!
We found out that the flush-pump for the toilet had some leaks, so I tried to fix that during Sunday. But it was broken in one place so I will have to get some spareparts in the week to come.
During the week I talked to the shop were I've ordered the charts and found out that the charts will not be delivered until I've left Gothenburg!
I'm not quite sure how to solve this problem.
At Brustholmarna March 21st.
On Saturday the 28th I made a trip to Styrsö to fill up fuel and get some fresh water. The new tank holds 104 litre diesel which is almost exactly what I wanted. But when I tested the freshwater system I found some leaks, and the electric pump did not work 100% properly. The leaks were easy to fix, but I did not succeed to get the electric pump to work 100%. I had the same problem some years ago, and that time the problem ceased by itself after some days use. I hope it will be the same this year.
I tested the fridge earlier in March and it was OK, but when I started it today, it made a terrible noise. After some oiling it was back to normal again - but this shows that it is really time to buy a new one!
Finally I sailed off to the harbour Björla, where Bibbi II will be lifted up on a lorry on Tuesday.
Monday I spend shopping around in Gothenburg to fix the last details and buy fresh food and bring it onboard.
That completes the planning of the trip.
Ingrid helped me with the clothes and other stuff on Sunday 29th.
Fresh food is the only thing missing on board now!
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