I'm alive and well but my van is in prison in Tunis! Yes, I knew there would be a piece of paper missing, unfortunately I don't know which one it is and neither do they! I had an uneventful trip across and then spent 4 hours with the customs and even got to chat with the Commandant, but to no avail. The van had to stay.
So today the secretary, Jamila, spent her time on the phone with the agent and making endless photocopies of endless documents. Tomorrow I hope to have the mysterious piece of paper that will liberate my raison d'etre.
During my travels the team were hard at work and have made good progress as you can see from the photos. The transom fell off, sorry, was removed today revealing a large amount of spongy wood all attached together with some remnants from a previous century known then as bolts. The buttock tuck has now developed into a transplant!
Not knowing what to do with myself while stressing about the van, I began the task of sorting the bronze hardware into piles of keeping and not keeping. There is a surprising amount of original stuff that we can re use which makes me happy. I really don't want to have a new boat at the end of this project and it is important to me to keep the soul of the boat intact. One of the things that has always intrigued me about antiques is their ability to transport one back to the past and this is not only by their design but by the marks they acquired over a long period of time. Chinook will have alot of new in her at the end, but there will also be alot of old.

Jono