Back On Matsu

Beaufort, NC

34 43.5N 76 40.0W

We have been back for over 2 weeks now and idyllic restful cruising it hasn't been! We arrived at the boat yard with hearts in mouths, but on

the whole Matsu is doing well for her year ashore, no mould or damp just a musty smell that soon went and a big list of things to do.

Our main worry was the engine, it's 23 years old and we weren't sure how it would enjoy a year of idleness, but it started first time and has purred ever since - sadly our 5 year old generator doesn't share it's resilience and has taken 2 full days of work already with no obvious improvement!

The unexpected one was that as soon as we turned on the water supply all the pipe connections let go, a year dried out seems to have destroyed all the rubber seals, I spent a thoroughly enjoyable few hours crawling round in cupboards replacing them, 12 months of steak and kidney pies seems to have made the cupboards smaller!

We have done the anti fouling, cleaned her from top to bottom, fixed the steering problem we had last year, rewired the anchor windlass, stitched the main and generally put her back into some sort of sailing boat, finally splashing back into the water on Wednesday. Our first trip was into 2 knots of current and 30 knots of wind so some things seem to be working as normal!

We also found time to head up to Philadelphia to pick up ships cat Charlie, he seems to be adjusting well from chipmunk killing hunting machine to lazy old boat cat, here's hoping the Wilsons don't get overrun with vermin now he is gone!

There is still a huge list of maintenance needed, we like to be ahead of the game and know how she is working before we do big passages, and north from here round Cape Hatteras qualifies as one. So to get moving sooner, our current plan is to try the Intracoastal Waterway route up the inside, we have never done it before as our mast is too high for the bridges - however by my calculations if I take all the superfluous stuff off the mast we have 3" to spare so later today I am heading up there with my screwdriver to see what I can do.

Wish us luck an keep an eye out on the news for some idiots stuck under a bridge!