It was inevitable – winter has finally arrived.

Unfortunately progress has slowed a bit on the boat.  We have been very lucky this winter.  Temperatures have been well above normal, and we didn’t have any snow at all until a few weeks ago.  However, we knew it wouldn’t last.  Now it looks like this outside:

It certainly could be worse – this is nothing compared to last year.  But there’s enough snow at Shenny that the idea of using tools that require an extension cord doesn’t seem like such a good idea.  Working on inside-the-boat projects would be an option for this weekend if the high temperatures weren’t forecast to be 26 degrees on Saturday and 13 degrees on Sunday.  No thank you.  So boat work at the marina is on a bit of a hiatus for now.

The outlook for next week (at the moment) is for temperatures in the 40’s, so hopefully we’ll be back at it in a few more weekends.  In the meantime we have plenty of projects we can work on at home, including finishing replacing the foam on the interior cushions, working on the 2-stroke outboard that we inherited from a friend, sewing winch covers and curtains, and sanding and varnishing the companionway hatch boards.

Before Mother Nature intervened, we were able to get some more sanding completed on the port side.  I estimate we have four hours of sanding left and we’ll be finished!  Hooray!  We also pulled the pressure-water faucets out of the two sinks, and removed another thruhull and seacock.  There’s no doubt we have a lot to take care of before the end of April, but we’re confident we’ll get it done.

As I walked home in today’s wind and snow, I just kept repeating to myself “four more years, four more years.”  And of course, in 11 1/2 more weeks we’ll be floating on Pegu Club on the water with six months of fun and adventure to look forward to.  Can’t come soon enough!