Tuesday 27^th April – Messolonghi

38:21.686N 21:25.005E

After a brief lull this morning, which allowed a number of boats to get their sails up to check, the easterly wind has been howling through the marina for much of the day.  The sun has been out though and so it was great drying weather for my washing this afternoon.

Today we finally finished fitting the cockpit enclosure J  Up until now we had just been stretching the fabric and fitting the fasteners;  Richard’s thumbs are numb from trying to stretch the fabric into place.  Today though we have actually had to fit a couple of new studs on the deck itself to finish the corners.  So it was out with the drill, and some even more careful measurement before committing to some new holes in the gel coat.  Fortunately all went well.  The cockpit enclosure looks great and has had some admiring comments from passers by.

After some lunch, it was time to move on to the next phase.  On the new enclosure, the side panels and back panel can be zipped out and replaced with panels fitted with mosquito netting instead of windows.  We zipped the replacement panels into place and were relieved to find that they fitted; we are letting them stretch into position over night and will attach their poppers tomorrow.  We already think we are going to get a lot of benefit out of them this summer; the dark blue netting also looks pretty good – a bit like tinted windows on a car J

This evening we have had dinner sitting in the cockpit enclosure with the net panels in place, enjoying the breeze through the mesh.