There's something about Shirley Valentine!

Hi guys..... once again I have been selfish and have been too busy getting on with doing very little to keep in touch. I thought I would rectify that by telling you a little bit about our beast of burden that makes all of our adventures possible.
As I said in a previous blog, every boat owner falls a little bit in love (or a lot!) with their own particular lump of fibre glass (or whatever materials make up their floating palace!). Obviously there are other materials involved as well, but the fibre glass, in our case, is what stops us getting wet. When you visit other boats you always get the 'grand tour' and do your duty 'oohing and aahing' over that particular owners pride and joy. Don't get me wrong..... there are many fantastic boats our there which put Shirley Valentine to shame with regard to size, speed, facilities etc etc... but I think I can almost equate it to having a new born baby! You can appreciate that someone else's baby has more hair, bluer eyes, longer more slender fingers etc etc, but NOTHING can beat the joy you get when you look at, or hold your own. I know an inanimate object can never really be substituted for a child, so don't get too upset kids!
I only know that when we return to Shirley we get this surge of pride and pat ourselves on the back for making what we think is a great choice of boat.
For those who are interested, Shirley Valentine is a 38 foot Bavaria cruiser. She was built in Bavaria, completed in December 2009 and launched in Koper, Slovenia on 15th February 2010. The pure logistics of getting the boat to Koper are interesting in themselves and is probably a story for over a glass of wine when we return.
Shirley Valentine is a two cabin version of the 38 foot cruiser and this gives us a massive heads (the name for a bathroom on a boat for the uninitiated, not Craig's inflated ego!) and a fantastic sized cockpit locker on the starboard side. There is ample space for the two of us and we have very comfortably entertained 6 people. Our two cabins are a reasonable size and the fact that we are under 12 metres (coming in at LOA of approx 11.72 metres) makes marina fees cheaper for us as 12 metres is the cut off point for the next level of expensive marina use in Croatia. Our saloon area is a great size and we have a good sized fold down table which makes access to the forward cabin very easy.
Our diesel engine is a 30 horse power Volvo Pentax which we find adequate for plowing into strong head winds. What has surprised us the most is how stable the boat is. She has now been in hurricane force winds 4 times and has coped more than adequately.
We have added some extras. One of my favourites is the folding wheel, which gives us good access to the stern of the boat where our (non hydraulic, thank goodness) transom flap gives us excellent egress from the boat. We also have a TV/DVD player with an aerial. Most Croatian TV is in English with Croatian subtitles so we get to watch lots of movies etc. Added bonus!!
We also put in a Webasco heater as we are thinking of doing the West coast of Scotland and the Baltic at some point. It has however been a life saver over the past few months and I think I would have been on a plane home on more than one occassion if we hadn't had heat!
We added a Schenker water maker while we were finishing commissioning is Monfacone. This was due to the fact that we were told that drinking water was hard to come by on some of the Greek islands. So far in Croatia though we haven't had a problem with supplies of water although the high calcium levels make it a bit unpalatable at times. Our kettle is constantly coated with white powder! We will have to wait and see if this was a wise purchase or not.
Our galley is L shaped and has the usual fridge/freezer. I still haven't quite got a handle on this and keep freezing my vegetables and milk! We also added a microwave which has come in very useful. We only usually use it when we are on shore power, although we have an invertor which enables us to use it at anchor if we so desire.
We have heaps of cupboard space and LOVE the rows of cupboards throughout the saloon and forward cabin. Although we are regularly increasing the volume of stuff that we have on board, we still have heaps of unused space.
The saloon is spacious and pleasantly lit. We are however going to replace all the bulbs with LED lights when we can get supplies to reduce our power consumption.
As also noted in a previous blog, our biggest problem is power generation. We have fairly limited solar panel capacity which has had limited use up until now. We have increased our storage capacity by adding another house battery (giving us a total of 420 amp hours) which helps a little, however we are not sure which direction to go in to increase generation. Every one you ask, of course, has their own opinion. A wind generator would have been fantastic up until now, however we have been warned that it will get very little use in the summer months. Extra solar panels will take up deck space and are very expensive. Then there is the option of a small generator. Watch this space!!!!
We are very saddened that Bavaria are ceasing production of this model and moving to a sleeker, more modern version. But again, we are old! It seems that they have an almost perfect product in the current model, so why change is our opinion.
As I said earlier, Shirley Valentine has a piece of our hearts! I am not sure if people who travel extensively in caravans get this feeling for their vans, however it is a popular sentiment in yachties. Maybe it is because you have to work with a boat to keep safe and get the ultimate enjoyment out of her and that when you get to know her limitations (and your own!) it is very unlikely that you will come to any harm. Whatever the unknown quantity is...... is creates an depth of emotion in you that is unexplicable.
If anyone else wants to know anything else about the boat or life aboard, please feel free to ask. If you want to buy your own piece of heaven I believe production is continuing on this model until August 2010!! :-)))
Will blog tomorrow to update everyone on where we are at.
And isn't Jessica Watson doing fantastically!!! You go girl!!
xxx
Lesley