I went to Gosport Marina from our home In East Sussex, it’s approximately 70 miles but can take up to two hours plus. I wanted to check out the various systems and other bits and bobs one might additionally need going around the island of Great Britain (GB) in an small motor boat and which might not have been previously necessary pottering around the Solent.

The charts with the plotter only covered the English Channel so I upgraded to the whole of the British Isles, these included however the entire European Atlantic coast and the Western Mediterranean. Garmin only do this huge area other than the English Channel so I wasn’t very happy.

The sales guy told me that I just had to take out the existing card and load up the new one. Simple, or was it? When I loaded the new card the image was at 90° to north and the auto pilot was 40° out. I phoned up the sales guy, he said that even though my plotter was only one year old it might need an operating software upgrade, which was easy (it wasn’t) and that should fix the problems. More about this later. 

The engines (twin Volvo 220’s) had their first service.

I ordered 17 ‘C’ series paper charts for passage planning and back up.

I was kindly offered a free lift out for a scrub and hose down at Premier Marinas Port Solent , (an excellent service).

I hadn’t thought about the anodes and didn’t have a set to replace the few that obviously needed renewal. So when back on my berth at Gosport I organised RS Divers to replace them whilst afloat. A quick and convenient way of doing this job which negates the need for a second costly lift if you stupidly forget, as I had done. 

Industrial quantities of Mini Cheddars, Kettle Chips, Twix’s , bottled water. and mini bottled beers were loaded onto the boat.

The diesel tank (550 litres) was filled to the top.

We were ready for the off.