So while I'm laying here on the couch with my swollen foot in the air and pretending to be super sick so I can have Alex bringing me this and that (normally I'm the galley slave and whatever else type of slave he can come up with so this is only fair), I'm also processing some of the 500+ photos from the year of refit that Alex has been occupied with. As that takes a while and I must admit, it is the most boring job one can find to do (to process images that is), I can show you a few photos showing what he's busy with now in this very moment.

I mentioned earlier that this old beloved yacht was leaking at various places when we got her. While most of it is fixed after Alex been re-bedding most areas already, there are a few minor leaks left at the stern. What he has done here now, is removing of the fittings by the stern, as their non-proper bedding was the reason to the small leaks (and the rotten wood underneath). Luckily it hasn't had time to spread too far, only just below the fittings. Plan is to when we get to a place in where we are staying for at least a few weeks, to remove and replace most of the plywood and have it done on a larger scale. In the meanwhile, he's cleaning up the affected areas, let it dry and then fill them with epoxy and 404 filler to prevent more leaks and rotten wood for now at least. 

And while he's already busy doing that, he thought why not remove the 500 kilo winches and properly re-bed the base of them as well. Yea why not... The ten inch long studs that holds the large winches in place through the coamings seem to have taken a good while to have removed.

This is how it looks before they're removed. We adore the solid look of the large winches from Barlow, one on each side, but unfortunately they're made in, correct me if I'm wrong, the 70's, and thus are not very effective any longer as we compare with the technology of today. They also weight like hell and causes the aft of the boat to sit lower. We have been contemplating whether to have them replaced with new smaller winches or not, but we're thinking that would destroy/downgrade the look of the boat and cockpit. We love the massiveness of them, and they do embrace the cockpit in a beautiful way.

Amazing that the small modern one at front left is almost as powerful as the large one in the back, and the weight of the small is like five times less than the grand. Incredible, and in certain aspects intimidating, to know that almost everything that we have around us develops and evolves into better, stronger, more effective, with time. 

P.S: Someone asked again about Internet connection on the boat, and it depends where you are of course, but here in le Marin, Martinique we have fast wifi reaching all the way to the anchorage which is very convenient right now. Something that definitely would be welcomed as a great development in our society would be to have free full cover wifi all over the globe. Seriously when is that going to happen?