We’re back. Whew, what an awesome adventure. We were fortunate to have seen and done stuff that we’ll treasure in our memories forever.

But, now we pay the piper. Boat work. Charisma needs her annual going over and there’s plenty to do. At least three weeks worth. First up – varnishing (Cetol to be exact). There’s stripping off the old stuff, taping, sanding and then two coats on the good stuff and four coats on the parts we have to strip completely. I’m estimating for now that about 30% of the old stuff needs to completely come off. Then engine work – I’m going to get the injectors cleaned again just to make sure all is well after last season’s issues with fuel contamination, get the engine guys to check the timing and fix that little niggling diesel leak that I can’t find, but am pretty sure is coming off an injector seal. At the same time Ann gets to do the annual polish/wax the sides of the hull so Charisma is pretty, but also to keep the crud that accumulates from ocean passages down to a minimum (and make it easier to scrub off).

There’s a page and a half of other miscellaneous jobs on the old job list, so plenty to keep us busy. Stuff like “tighten wind vane bolts”, and “clean/grease the anchor windlass”. By themselves each is a two or three hour job, but aggregated on the list…well, you get the idea.

OK, time to get off to work.

Oh, also, Ann will be compiling a list of our vacation south “by the numbers” in the next day or so, stay tuned and I’ll also post progress on the boat work. It’s so exciting I know you’ll want to follow along (groan).