Now that Winter’s here, I find that progress through the jobs-to-do list slows to a snail’s pace.  Partly because the wet weather halts any work outside and partly because it is difficult to maintain one’s motivation when it’s cold, wet, dark and miserable, and everyone else is at home by the fire with a glass of something warming in their hand; there is nothing like a warm sunny day to put a spring in your step and hurry the work along.  However, I am lucky that I work 400 yards away from the boat, so I can work on her every night, motivation notwithstanding.I managed to get the outside varnish done in October, taking advantage of a brief window of fine weather.  The instructions exhort you to apply the varnish in warm, dry conditions, but like everyone else, I just slap it on between showers as best I can.  For some reason, it does seem to last better if applied in October.

Whilst contemplating the ever growing list, the thought occurred to me that there was still plenty of time, with winter and spring stretching ahead.  A perusal of the diary quickly revealed that, social commitments aside, I have only four free weekends between now and delivery  time to Plymouth to complete my preparation.  That raised the motivational factor a bit.

The boat was pretty well prepared for the Azores Challenge, but the three thousand mile shakedown revealed more deficiencies and improvements to be attended to.  Leaking hatches, leaking windows, loose rudder bearings, faulty autopilot (Raymarine ST2000, completely useless, if anyone’s interested  -  rubbish product, rubbish service, no wonder their share price is in free fall), dodgy electrics, ventilators that don’t, etc etc.  Nothing that would prevent me getting to Newport, but everything that makes life easier.  I’ve tried to make the boat failsafe  -  as long as the mast stays up, the rudder stays on and I’ve got food and water, I can keep sailing.  Electrics, electronics, engine  -  I can cope without them all, though that begs the question, why have them then?  Because I like to and because the budget stretches to include them (and stretched it is!).  I don’t even need accurate time because a noon sight giving latitude (no accurate time needed) will mean that I can hit America more or less in the right spot, as long as I don’t drop the sextant overboard.  As a friend of mine succinctly put it ‘you’d have to be more pissed than usual to end up in the Southern Ocean whilst on the Jester Challenge.’   I sail with a dry boat and leave temptation ashore so I’d already covered that problem - it also makes the first cold beer in Newport even more delicious, though not as good as the second!