Shock - horror: it's been over a month since the last blog update. Time does fly.

What's been happening? Not a lot and quite a bit. Generally, the weather over the last month has been crap. Not as much sailing as I would have liked. One last father-daughter sail before she was off to Uni (seems like only yesterday when I held a newborn 3kg bundle of nothing in my arms) and a good clean-out down below. Long overdue as somehow we hadn't gotten round to it these last 2 years. Trying to clean a boat while she's in a yard is like mopping the floor with the tap running.



It's unlikely we'll get much sailing in over the next few weeks: I've got 2 weeks of night shifts coming on and to top it all the steering pedestal bevel gears are shot. Teeth missing. The weirdest thing: leave Guapa in her berth one week and all is OK, the next week crunch, crunch???
Whitlock pedestal is nearly 30 years old and spare parts are hard/impossible to get. Faced with replacing the entire innards. There goes another couple of hundred.
Guapa is rapidly turning into Trigger's broom (Only Fools and Horses): she may be approaching her 30th birthday, but apart from the hull and mast there is very little - if anything - of the original left.



One of the last major items on our to-do list was replacing the sails. Our present wardrobe is nearing the end of it's useful life (understatement), so I've bitten yet another bullet.
I talked to a couple of sail lofts at the Southampton Boat Show without much result. Either the stand was manned by some useless woman from accounts, or they adopted the cheap and cheerful (we can always adapt them later) approach. I may be old fashioned, but when I'm spending several thousands, I would like my sails to fit without the need for any re-cutting.
In the end I settled for a local loft who found the time to come to the boat, measure her, and to discuss specification in detail. And, they offered my a very, very good price for a cruising chute and snuffer too. Due date: end of February - early March.

So, there we are. Things are getting better all the time. Lots to look forward to.