Christmas and a years work

 Well, so much for regular posts, sorry!

We are now back in the UK for a couple of weeks, visiting family.  It's cold here..... The lead up to the journey was a little fraught, you have to load about a million apps and complete hundreds of online forms.  Once that is all done, the actual journey was very smooth and stress free.

Life on Guiding Light has improved enormously since we moved into the shed.  It is much cooler, although it is of course winter too.  No real progress has been made.  As I mentioned last time, one spends weeks apparently achieving nothing...then all of a sudden things happen!

Zaka is moving down the boat repairing ribs, and tightening fastenings.  Gill now has help, Shawnel, Zaka's cousin.  The girls are getting on well scraping the paint off the inside of the hull and cabin.  I have finished preparing the mast and have put two thinned coats of varnish on.  Hopefully that will protect the wood until I am ready to finish the mast just before we put it back up.  I have also started looking at the deck....

Happy Christmas, and my New Year resolution is to get better at writing blogs!

Alasdair and Gill

Sorry it has been so long!

I kid my self that I write a blog every week or so. Well, it's been seven weeks since we came back to Guiding Light....and this is the first blog.

I think that life just became so complicated that I was caught like a rabbit in the headlights. When we left the UK at the beginning of October our lives seemed to be fairly sorted.  We had a plan to return to the UK next year and move into a beautiful house that we were in the process of buying on the Isle of Wight.

However upon out return to St Lucia we discovered that the main deck beam has started to rot.  I suspect it has been that way for awhile, just reached a critical point and decided to show!  So that led to a rethink on timing, obviously only going one way.  So now we have extended our stay here till October, notwithstanding flying home for Christmas and the summer!  We also pulled out of buying the house, too many old things that need fixing!  Even so, there are times when I feel close to just giving up.  Maybe the project is just too big.  But the words of one of the old boys in the yard keep me sane.... "...don't look at the whole job, just one square foot at a time!"

So what have we achieved?  We are now in the shed, same shed, same position as Roy was!  It makes a huge difference not being exposed to the elements.  I think it is also kinder to the poor boat.  The Caribbean sun is merciless even in the winter and the rain comes down two or three times a day. 

Also, we have removed the rudder and started work on that.  The stern tube is out, and the new engine ordered...just need to make a new engine bed, to fit a new stern tube, and fit the new engine....oh and new tanks and electrics

Gill is getting on sanding the interior.  Much easier now everything is down on the ground beside us in the shed.  Zaka has tied all the planks in around the stern and is working up the boat.

I have been sanding the mast.....

We have a project plan!  I am however keeping that secret until much nearer the end!

Hopefully another blog will be published this year and then we will be full steam ahead next year

Fair winds

                                             Guiding Light in the shed

                                             Gill in the bilge.....

                                             The mast