A waiting game.

Thanks everyone that offered advise about what to install battery and engine wise. I've put these suggestions to Fernwoods and we will discuss them in more detail before we can settle on the final solution. We have plenty of time for now to decide what that will be.  I'll report on that when I can.

There is no date for the build to start yet so in the mean time I rang Jim Sparks at Alexander boats and will arrange another visit in the coming weeks.  I don't intend to discuss AmyJo in any detail but just want for us to get to know each other better.  As Chris is working during school term this will probably be at the weekend as Jim informs me he is flat out with work at present.

I've also been putting a list of things we need to be looking at to purchase.  Most likely some of these we'll get at the Crick boat show as we have ordered our tickets now for the Saturday and Sunday.  I'd love to do all 4 days but I've still got things to do at home so will make the most of the extended bank holiday to catch up.

While we wait for the build to start I thought I'd start doing some research for the following items and will update as we get a more final idea of where we go with them:-

Internet connection.  As most of our family live in Essex we keep in touch via various means but quick and cheap is facebook and so on.  Internet connection is a must for us so am starting to look at 3g wifi routers and at the moment have seem the Huawei e583c.  Its a nice compact unit with WiFi and it can take an external antenna which will be quite handy.

Entertainment system.  We're hoping to indulge ourselves here as we want a high spec system that is modular.  By that I mean it should serve as a surround sound system and radio,  has an input for an Ipod (save us having CDS on board), USB drives for Videos and also the freeview system.  There are few systems out there but Bose do such a system and as the cost is quite high I'm researching alternatives before taking the plunge.  The idea being we can minimise the number of units we need (no need for hifi, radio, CD/DVD player) and control those we will have via one remote.

Satellite receiver.  As we have SKY at home I have no intention of paying a second fee for it as I begrudge paying the high cost they charge as it is so may go with a free to view system.  Interesting thought though,  I wonder if Sky's Multi room would stretch to the boat as well?  Doubt it.

Satellite dish.  There is lots out there but I was reading Belles blog and like the neat dome solution of the Atmos Dish with auto skew.  Expensive I agree but it does save setting the dish up each time and looks much tidier too.

TV.  Naturally with all this we need a TV to watch and there are several out there that run on 12V or 230V.  I think we may go for a 24inch with in built freeview digital TV as anything bigger may be to much in the small space.  Again I have to look into this more.

Security.  I would like to have some sort of alarm on AmyJo but don't want one that will go off for no reason and annoy the neighbours.  That in mind I like the idea of a GSM alarm that texts you when it goes off. That way we can be alerted of problems and others will not be subject to an annoying wail in the middle of the night.  Advantages for these systems are are GPS position alarm (if the boat moves beyond a preset perimeter), some models you can add gas leak detection, bilge level monitors, low battery level and so on.  Most use very little power so will not drain the batteries.

This is only some of the things we need to consider and it is now becoming apparent the magnitude of choices and decisions we'll need to make over the coming months.  To be honest we cannot wait and look forward to making these decisions when the time comes.