We arrived back at the start of September with the intention of getting launched ASAP and working on the boat in the water, however among the jobs lined we had lined up Steve was going to re-caulk the whole of the deck which is a big job and I needed to reupholster the saloon so we decided that it was easier to stay out of the water! We had some great company in the yard and despite the pool being closed for the winter 2 days after we arrived back we continued the evening BBQ's to keep the boat cool and socialise with the other cruisers. We met some lovely new friends including Helen & Dave from Grace of Langstone, Alan & Holly from Summer Wind, Paul & Laurie from 2 Outragous and Doug from Zipporah as well as old friends Nicky & Reg on Blue Velvet of Sark,  Lisa & Mark on Wild Iris who lifted out for a month and Tim & Jules from Mojito who stopped for a few days - great time great company.

Some of the deck prepared for new caulking - the deck took 102 tubes of caulking and we lost count of the rolls of masking tape!

  

The finished work after a light sand,it's so good not to get black marks over everything!

  

The saloon upholstery - though only done in 2017 was totally falling to pieces, the fabric had delaminated and was a disaster! The company who make it won’t take any responsibility for their product not being fit for purpose - don’t buy anything made by Covertex ltd.

 

The upholstery was challenging - there were about 280 staples in each seat back to remove before I could take the old covers off and start! A job made much easier with the right tool to remove them 🤣.

   

  

we decided to get new foam for the base seats and so an electric kitchen knife was the next purchase.

  

and the finished seats- I won’t be so worried next time about how they look, they are 100% better than the falling apart ones they replaced even if they aren’t perfect!

  

Eventually after spending far too much money with the work we did on the boat and new bits and pieces like buying new anchor chain and a new Anchor - we chose a Spade to replace our much used and loved CQR (I had had a few too many sleepless nights not quite trusting it!).  Steve raised the waterline, cleaned and polished the hull as well as many other jobs, we were ready to go back in the water.

We were launched on Wednesday 23rd and were soon happily anchored in Fishing Bay.