Finally I’ve gotten back to putting on some varnish pre-winter. The port covering board and toe rail aft of the break deck, and port cockpit combing are getting it now as well as the scuttle hatch and batten boards, starboard inner bulwark and covering board back to the break deck. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain–so today’s varnish will be the last of that “set” and will have to figure a way to get the remaining needed varnish on in the next weeks. There are also a few little spots of hull that managed to pop a bit of paint off during the sail North from SoCal. I can’t really get to them as they’re on the side of the boat away from the dock here (always something!) but perhaps we’ll turn the boat or launch the dingy to get me the needed access.

I scraped, sanded and have gotten a coat of mid-brown “honeycomb” colored paint on the substantial framing around the chart house windows (external). I last did it in mid-2009 and the paint was beginning to flake away from the underlying wood (teak which doesn’t hold paint very well). I need another coat of paint there and then I can sand the chart house sides and corners sealing up the various construction seams and give it a bright white coat of paint. Unfortunately, I’ve scraped off much of the old sealant and…the rains are coming tomorrow…so we’ll be (maybe not?) seeping just a little tomorrow.

It has been exceedingly calm for the past several days but late last night/early this morning the wind howled and the lazy jacks slapped noisily against the mast until David (bless him) went out and dealt with them at something like 4 am.

Today the boat is tilting a bit from the gusts of winds but it is bright and sunny with low clouds skittering across the sky. Very pretty.