Update

We went sailing for the day yesterday - had a great day, and had her humming along at 10 knots. My new running backstay retaining system works really well and has turned a 1 or 2 minute job into a 20 second job, with zero aggravation factor.

We've finished stripping the gas bottle lockers on the foredeck and now have the first coat of varnish on, and have also done the main hatch. Hopefully I'll have them finished within the fortnight, weather permitting, and then we will start work on the last of the cockpit varnish.

I made some more mods to the mainsail reefing line today with some retaining rings for the line down the boom, which should keep the line from flapping around when we're not reefed.

The washing machine is in full production; we have worked out that by the end of next week it will have paid for itself, based on what we have to pay for the laundry at the marina. The marina also finally installed the 32A 3-phase outlet last week, so now we can run the hot water cylinder, etc.

My dad and I had another run over the engine, doing the tappets, etc, and she is just purring along now - it's hard to believe it's the same engine we had in California!

Getting there...