A post from London to get warmed up for Spring.

Life continues to be interesting and present challenges. We took the decision to abort last year's Transatlantic voyage and put her up in Bristol Marine yard just North of Newport. We stripped all the stuff off the boat that would not stand freezing and put it in a storage room at the yard, and left her to be shrink wrapped and left for the winter.

Spring has begun to make itself felt and I'm looking forward to sailing!

Assuming "Unpronouncable Volcano" in Iceland doesn't have another tantrum I'll be out at the yard next Tuesday evening. Bristol Marine is repairing the bottom 2 inches on the foot of the mast: ugly corrosion where the aluminum lost the fight with the steel platform it sits on in a moist salty atmosphere for 30 years. We slowly replace our old boat for a new one, one systems at a time.

I have several projects, the highlights of which are to install some electronics and antennas for the AIS transponder,
I also want to install the mast steps (flip down steps to climb up the mast) We don't need these for the crossing but I bought the steps while ABI the manufacturer was going bust and got a deal. Also it will be whole lot easier to do this while the mast is on the ground and I don't plan to have it out of the boat any time soon after this.

If the yard hasn't done so I'll swap out the mast head sheaves and axles I ordered. (Thats the wheeley pulley thingies at the top of the big pole for the non sailors), so that raising the sails will be easier and if anybody does have to go up the mast we'll know that the gear is new and strong.

I will also get the Windvane steering re-installed and the AutoPilot mount fiberglassed into the boat. I'll post pictures of that since it is a bit unusual.

Signing off for now,

M