Progress report

Two more coats of International 'Interdeck' on the cockpit floor and sides; three coats of varnish to the coaming and sanding and painting of the thwarts and all the planned seasonal maintenance will be done. Aiming to have Arwen back in the water for mid May.

Completing an RYA Day Skipper Theory course in next couple of weeks. I know quite a bit wont apply to navigating coastal passages in a dinghy, but it cant harm to update myself, learn some new tricks and exercise the old grey matter.

I know one or two of you have been trying to contact me by Skype recently and have been unable to do so. I am sorry. My laptop crashed itself into a permanent reboot loop that confused everyone including Microsoft help desks. Caused by a bug in windows 10 Edge, eventually it was resolved by having to do a factory re-set. However, we lost plenty, including Skype contact details etc. Basically, if you are trying to contact me via Skype, could you try via messenger instead; or as a comment on this blog and my sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused. 

It will be good to get back out on the water. I am hoping for a busy camp cruising season. In no particular order I'm hoping to

• attending a couple of rallies with the brilliant Dinghy Cruising Association 
• catching up with the planned tour of the 'Southern Cross' and supporting the project in any way when it, Howard Rice and John Welsford visit the UK
• doing a series of sailing vlogs about dinghy cruising around the waters of Plymouth Sound, the rivers Lynher and Tavy and the upper reaches of the river Tamar
• towing Arwen down to Falmouth to complete voyages up the Helford and some tributaries of the Fal (see forthcoming post about visiting Devoran)
• completing an RYA Day Skipper Theory course (note completing, I'm not so confident of passing.......the old grey matter is very rusty since retiring) 
• completing a voyage up the Fowey, possibly to Lostwithiel
• some supporting/volunteering for local youth sailing charities
• lots of practice - anchoring, reefing, rowing, pilotage etc
• a capsize test drill of Arwen
• a vlog about using the galley box and the new sleeping platform on my first camp cruise of this season
• sailing in company with my friend Dave and his new boat

And a potential winter project - designing and making a 'proper' boom tent for a Welsford navigator using gas pipes and tent fabric; and installing a whale gusher urchin bilge pump.......if I can afford them.  

Will have to do some more supply teaching to fund those projects!