Friday 15 June 2018

About 0100 (1 am) this morning, while lying in a puddle of sweat unable to go to sleep, deduced that "winter" had lasted almost five weeks this year, two weeks more than last, but was now over. Having missed about 18 days of it while out of the country the glorious livability seemed shorter. Afternoon high temperatures are still a bit lower, peaking in the low 30s (around 90 F), but dew points have run back up into the oppressive range. This morning before bike ride/yoga, home weather station was showing 95% relative humidity. Use of AC incurs an outrageously high $9.71/day (just for electricity) and is worth every penny.

Another win for Brunel in next to last leg of the Volvo Around the World Race ties them for first with Mapfre, one point ahead of Dongfeng. Due tie-breakers, Brunel must finish ahead of both on the last leg into The Hague to win the series. In fact, their order of finish on the last leg no matter actual placement, will be the top three order of finish for the entire cup. It's a 700 NM sprint. No pressure. As this is of zero interest to most, you may wish to skip this paragraph... oh.

Having missed the opportunity to sand and varnish in relative comfort, am now writing this nonsense while cooling off and trying to remember that not doing it now will incur much more work later.

- Later

Taping, sanding, priming and dusting is complete so confidence that two coats of varnish will be splattered on tomorrow is mesospheric, maybe stratospheric, but anyway pretty darned high. Somewhat more skepticism surrounding furler motor and life raft has been rewarded with no word, but expect both to be sorted by end of next week. Since all varnishing will also be completed (he averred with absolute conviction) the end of departure preparation is in sight - might need really good binoculars.

Jack