Osprey has been berthed at the Catamaran club since my departure on the 16^th January. I have been back in the UK catching up with family, house and work. Our good friend Alico has been working on the boat and the cabin sole has been sanded back and re sealed and the pilot house has been completely renovated. I will be returning on board on the 16^th April having had the usual trouble finding a seat on a BA flight and having delayed the return so as to attend Lindsay Dove’s birthday bash on the 7^th.  This will be a real nautical party as it is being held on a Thames sailing barge. We will be taking the barge with 40 on board from the Tower of London, through the (hopefully open) Tower Bridge then down to the Thames mouth and back. An all day exercise followed by drinks at the Little Ship Club on our return. The following day Anita and I will be experiencing the US Embassy to obtain our US visas. These are no longer available on the waiver program for people entering the USA on yachts so we will have to attend for our interview and confirm our good character! Anita travelling on her maiden name has been and no doubt will be good for further questions. Women using their maiden names does not seem to be either common or in vogue in the US.

It will take me about a week to re-assemble the pilot house on board after the renovations then I will be taking Osprey north through Barbuda, The Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, The Bahamas and finally Fort Lauderdale where we will be leaving her for the hurricane season. Charles, who is currently working in the USA will be joining me for part of the trip and perhaps Geoff Richardson will join me for the final leg into Fort Lauderdale and show me the way up the canal to our berth. We have decided to leave the present main sail configuration until we get to Florida as there are more facilities there to do the work. I am still trying to maintain the current format of behind the mast furling rather that going to slab reefing which is less handy for two handed sailing. After a meeting with the Profurl team in the UK the  current plans are to swop out the current system for the latest version from Profurl and open up the goose neck a little further to give plenty of  space for the foil. However we will look at other alternatives in Florida. If we can’t make the Profurl system work / strong enough we will probably go for an in boom system as it will also drop the C of G a little.

At the time of writing I am at home in Woodlands and for the first time in the 17 years we have been here we have 4 inches of snow. No wonder I am looking forward to returning to Osprey.