Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

Parrel beads, fallow deer and garden logs

Needed new parrel beads on Arwen. Very expensive if you go to chandler. quite expensive off Ebay. Found natural wood ones at 30mm diameter and 20mm diameter at Hobby Craft of all places. They have been stained and are now drying before soaking in Danish oil one more time.

The spars have been sanded with 320 grit paper and now await warmer weather for varnishing.

The repair has been done to the outboard bracket after it 'bumped' the garage wall!!  It just has to be epoxied back onto the frame but all painting has been done.

The winter refit is almost complete. I just need to paint hull interior and exterior and redo the varnish on the coaming.

Should be back in the water for late April, all being well.

In the meantime, a little fallow deer stag , a couple of years old, has adopted the upper garden as his own patch. As his boldness develops, he gets closer to the lower lawn and its new grass growth. By the end of the week, we will be practically inviting him into the kitchen. The pheasants continue to graze the upper slopes and we continue to roll logs down the hill ready for friends to collect for their wood burners.

The last bit of garden clearance was done today with five trips to our compost recycling centre. Tomorrow the old wendy house and tree house come down and some of the old decayed decking around the house gets replaced.

Well maybe tomorrow. We might go for a long bike ride instead!

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