We have great expectations for this improvement. It should mean an unmanagable beast will be tame enough for us to handle her, once we are used to it's operation and foibles.
We have most of the track on the mizzen mast (smaller). We decided to tackle that one first to familiarise ourselves with the process before tackling the main mast. I'm glad we did because we found France had supplied an aluminium extrusion section with the locating pins in the wrong end. We had also been sent the wrong size slugs for going up inside the mast, but Spar Craft has been quick to ship replacements.
The forecast is for the cold and wind and rain to return on tuesday, so we are racing to try and have everything done on the masts before then. We will just have to bend on the sails (nautical term for feed in and attach), attach new lines (ropes) to handle the furling and unfurling operations, and of course set it all up with 'pulleys' so we can operate it all from the cockpit.
We are completely rebuilding the shower floor because we discovered rotten sections, and the rest of the list moves slowly forward. I can see us shovelling snow before we get out of here.
The big concern is that the later we leave, the greater the chances of getting caught by a North Atlantic storm before we get to Bermuda. They can be nasty with gale force winds and their frequency increases the deeper into winter we get.
But we still have moments of great beauty here. I took these shots this evening. Hard to believe we were battened down for hurricane Sandy just over a week ago.