With "Endurance" hailing from Tasmania before we took over, and the Chesapeake Bay before that, she really was a cold water boat. She does have a nice bronze wood-fired heater in the cabin after all!  
(And Geelong isn't exactly renowned for its sunshine either.)
But with our departure date creeping up, (just a few weeks to go now), and lots of hot days ahead, shade in the cockpit is vital. I'd been through all of the exercises for a substantial, heavyweight "arch" across the stern, but ended up with a beautifully custom made, folding "bimini", complete with surfboard racks. We fitted it this week and it's made the cockpit a lot more comfortable. A brilliant job by Neil Hancock at Aussie Boat Covers in Melbourne.  So if you want one, call Neil!
Meanwhile, Tony Bowdler had done the rigging inspection once the boat was back in the water, and left me with a little list of tasks to attend to before we go too far, so I've been beavering away at them and managing to cross a couple of items off the list every day.  (Errr...and thanks for going up the mast TWICE Tony....I'm still a mast-top virgin.)
I have a couple of annoying problems that I haven't been able to fix yet, both relatively minor maintenance issues related to the engine, but getting the local diesel mechanic onto the boat is like herding cats. I just can't undo the bolts to replace the freezer drive belt, (and even more importantly, the alternator belt when it eventually needs replacing,) and as well as that I have an odd noise from the drive shaft which may or may not have something to do with water lubrication in the seal.  But it is in the deepest, darkest recess at the bottom of the hull in a space built for leprechauns and it is definitely sending me nuts.
But that's what boats are for I think!
And while all of this has been going on, Mary has been furiously provisioning the boat with enough food to last six months. Its amazing that she's found places to stash everything, but it all seems to disappear somewhere in the cabin. Who'd ever heard of canned butter, tetra-packed wine or long-life cheese before? Anyway, she's certainly building a comfortable nest.

It's Haul-Out time!
For the first time since buying "Endurance", nearly two years ago, she came out of the water and onto a hard stand over the last couple of weeks. 
This is almost the final maintenance step in our pre-departure preparations, and we're still on sked for dropping the lines in early January.
She looked pretty good......the previous owner left her in excellent shape, and the hull was perfect with no sign of Osmotic blistering, the bane of fibreglass yachts of  "Endurance"'s vintage. She had a full hull strip and re-glassing in Sydney before I took over, and it shows.

Time to scrape off the barnacles and tackle all of the jobs that can only be done on dry land. A good bottom clean, light sanding and new anti-foul is the primary job, and I happily recruited Tony Bowdler, one of the local shipwrights, to do it for me. I wasn't looking forward to being covered in toxic blue stuff for the next few weeks, but Tony made it look easy. 
I stuck with the list of simpler jobs. 
Cleaning up the topsides and repairing a few small dings, a couple of coats of varnish on  the caprails and timber topsides, cleaning up the stainless steel windvane and bowsprit gear, working and lubricating all of the through-hull fittings, (there's 17 of 'em), topping up the self-steering gear with hydraulic fluid, cleaning out the filters and strainer for the raw water intake, the electric bilge pump and the freshwater tank, replacing the zinc anodes on the hull, fine-sanding the propeller, checking the manual bilge pump, cleaning out the cockpit drains, signwriting the lifebuoy, and finally, a full service on all of the winches on the deck. Which was another job for Tony Bowdler, so I could watch, learn and help to reassemble the tricky little buggars. The next time she's out of the water, I'll be doing everything myself. Aargh! But we're not finished yet. 
Tony's going to be doing a full rigging inspection next week, and I've yet to have our shady new Bimini mounted to give us essential shade at the helm.