We returned to Stuart late this morning with the trunk packed to the max to begin getting Light Reach ready to go. First on my agenda after storing the gear we had brought back aboard was to scrub the decks. After 4 1/2 months of being on the hard there was a serious layer of grime that needed to be removed before we hank the sails back on. We've decided to let the bright work go au natural and its current state is pretty bad with varnish peeling like a ripe tomato. It will be a real test of my patience to ignore it during the process. The more I scrubbed the more varnish littered the decks. We did get her scrubbed and looking quite spiffy. Whilst I spend the day scrubbing decks the Captain took care of moving off the diesel cans and dingy so I could scrub under them and got the systems functioning down below, adding water to the tanks, and generally mucking about.
We opted to spend the night on board so we can put the sails on first thing tomorrow. It's something best done after a fresh sleep. It was a nice evening in the cockpit with dinner done on the grill. Feels wonderful to be on board again.
The picture is the Captain and CSO on the docks