Hey! Who turned off the warmth? Did someone leave the fridge door open or forget to pay the heating bills or something? Whatever the reason, suddenly summer is well and truly over. Damn! Even the leaves are turning yellow. I'm not sure I'm quite ready for this just yet.

This week has been really busy. We've stripped the boat, taken off her mast, raised her on land and started the process of treating her for the osmosis. *sigh*

It was a lot of work. We've had Fiona for three years now and as she's a second home to us, we've manged to accumulate the usual paraphernalia that one gathers around oneself. What the hell is all this crap? To add to the problem, we don't have a car, so everything had to be hauled back home on numerous trolley trips. As the temperatures will fall well below zero in the coming months, absolutely everything had to be removed (mostly to guard against moisture damage or mould developing).

Once it was home, we came to the "Where will we store it?" dilemma, as we only live in a tiny apartment. So now all of our storage spaces are crammed full, the matresses from the boat are stacked up in our living room, the wind generator is sitting on the desk and yesterday I discovered that the deflated dinghy was laid out on my kitchen table!



Fortunately that was not to be a permanent thing. Lars-Göran just needed room to roll it up to fit in it's storage bag. Thank goodness.

The other amazing thing I've discovered is just how many ropes my sea dog of a husband has managed to squirrel away. There were several hundred kilos of them. All shapes and sizes. They were stored away in boxes in the cock-pit area and even under the matresses in the sleeping areas. I admit I was getting rather worried that he was some kind of closet rope fetishist. Even he admits that maybe it is a little excessive and he promises me that he'll weed out the extras over winter.

Then it was time to take off the mast. I don't have a picture of our mast being removed, but this one we took of another boat will give you the idea.



It takes a few people to get these monsters on land. We were so lucky to have our friend Ulf to help us. He is very efficent, knows what he is doing and above all - he's really calm! But boy was it heavy. Even he was surprised that our mast weighed so much more than his, despite being 4m shorter. One of the previous owners of the boat worked for the mast manufacturer and he had changed the original mast for a special re-inforced type. The mast steps also add to the weight.

Then it was time to take her up on land, where the full extent of the damage became apparent. We had sort of half hoped that we had been wrong when we first saw the blisters back in May. Isn't denial a wonderful thing? But there was no mistaking it now.



Fortunately, it was still in the early stages and not too deep. We had been researching the best method of treating the problem and most people agree that the first step is to open up these blisters and let the fluid inside them drain. The best method for that was sandblasting the hull. This is very specialised work as the gelcoat layer is only 1mm thick. If you go too deep, you can risk damaging the laminate underneath.

After asking around and getting quotes (several of those expensive enough to make your eyes water), we chose a firm to come out and do it. We were all set to document it when our digital camera decided to die. What bad timing! We tried everything, but not a spark of life was evident. Luckily, Ulf came to the rescue again and loaned us his camera for the day. We took ours down to the local dealer who is sending it to Canon. We should hear back in a week or so about what is wrong with it. A week without a camera! Will we survive?

Anyway, bright and early on a crisp autumn Monday, the guy arrived and set to work. If you look carefully at the picture, you can just see him (he unfortunately is wearing a jumper the same colour red as the hull!)



It took quite a few hours of steady work to get her clean strip away the paint and gelcoat. She still has to be hand sanded back a bit then left to dry out for winter. We are arranging for someone to come and measure the moisture level in the hull and make sure it's completely dry before adding the epoxy next spring. She looks so lonely all by herself on the wharf.



But it won't be long before the other boats join her on land. Meanwhile we have to treat and store the mast, conserve the engine with ant-freeze and empty out the water systems. That ought to keep us busy for a bit.