We’re blessed: Summer has arrived early, or so it seems at least. We took full advantage of the good weather and went sailing. Well, sometimes sailing, sometimes just drifting with sails up. Family days afloat. Opportunities to catch up with what’s going on in the lives of my offspring, a beer whilst watching the world go by, or just tinkering on the boat with my youngest, ... Life doesn’t get much better than that.

I loathe DIY – with a vengeance. Yanni (my youngest) on the other hand, seems to love it. So, over the last few weeks we had a couple of father/son DIY days on the boat. And, I must admit, it was kind of fun. Not as much fun as actually sailing, but not bad either. We seem to have arrived at an understanding too – I tell him what I want done and how, and then he does it (and a very good job he does too). Not only that, sometimes also he comes up with helpful suggestions. I doubt I’ll ever make a sailor out of him, but he certainly turned out to be a first rate boat technician/electrician.

Boat electrics are almost done (just a few more cabin and the navigation lights to convert to LED). Safety kit all A-OK (though I must say that the emergency distress flares did turn out to be a lot more expensive than I remember them to be). However, I still need to buy a cradle for the life raft and figure out a way to fix the Dan-buoy to the push-pit (how hard can that be?).

Progress has also been made with the Monitor wind vane. We’ve figured out how to connect all the ‘bits of string’ and where we will fit them. A job for next week-end. We only have 2 more weekends alongside left, before we move onto a swinging mooring. So, those weekends will most likely be quite hectic (but in an organised kind of way) as there are a couple of job which require 220V shore power. All the pieces of the jigsaw are finally falling into place. Guapa will be all ship-shape before the month is out – of that I am very confident.

So confident, that I won’t have any excuses left NOT to head north in May. Once I had my mind set on this trip the whole ‘boat project’ acquired a renewed sense of purpose. Just what was needed. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Our renewed sense of purpose has, however, had a draining effect on my wallet. I did manage to recover a few beer tokens by selling off kit surplus to requirements: cockpit awning, a satellite phone, etc... Every little helps. I am working this week, but I have left Yanni a ‘boat to-do list’. Rubbing strake for the dinghy and some holes need plugging too. Nothing major.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll be able to report back later this month that we’re ready to enjoy the fruits of our labours. If everything goes according to plan, we’ll never have been better prepared for the coming season.

2014 is going to be our year – I can feel it in my bones.