Wed 14 Apr: Today, I’m flying back to Cloudy Bay after 5 months of winter hibernation in Bucharest. What did we do all that time? Maintenance planning, cooking (Oana) eating (Glen), learning to play the saxophone and A LOT of video editing, catching up with previously unedited video from 2019. At about 100mins of effort for every 1 minute of finished video, this activity is a good way to gobble up time during long dark winter days.

What is to be done on the boat this trip? The to-do list is as long as ever, but essentially a lot of putting-back-together things that I took apart last autumn, now that I have gathered all the needed spare parts. I should also be greeted with a new set of rigging, which East Coast Marine Rigging guys put together over their quiet winter period. Though I don’t plan to put the mast back up this time – that will happen just before we launch in the autumn, keeping the protective shrink wrap covering over the boat until the last moment.

I’m pretty lucky to be able to get into USA during these continuing days of Covid restrictions. Oddly, Romania and Bulgaria remain the only 2 European countries that are allowed to travel freely to the USA. Still, I was a bit nervous whether I’d actually be allowed in, even with a vaccination certificate and a recent negative PCR Covid test.
But all worked out OK and I was happy to see Ray again when he picked me up from the airport, delivering me to a rather cold and damp Cloudy Bay after 20 hours travel via Istanbul.

Tomorrow, the work will begin! Let’s see what surprises Cloudy Bay has for me this time. She always seems to have a few “tricks” to play on me when left alone for more than a few weeks.