The summer is sliding past as if it were greased. Weekends are packed with things to do but not many of them are that productive as far as Flamingo is concerned.

If you want a small prison for chickens though…

Or maybe a giant flying slug?

Or trees climbed…

Or a picnic trampled…

Or an Island sailed around…

Then it has been a very productive Summer!

TEMPLATES, TEMPLATES, AND YET MORE TEMPLATES.

There has of course been some work on the ‘shipwreck’ as my daughter still insists on calling it.

I’ve made a template for the companionway and commissioned a local craftsman (my father) to make me some lovely washboards. She had doors on when I got her, well, one door, the other was hanging on by one rusty hinge, but was originally fitted with washboards. There is some discussion between us as to whether doors, or washboards, or a combination of both would be best….

I’ve also been making templates of the frames that need replacing. It’s fiddly but quite satisfying.

Every now and then I break off from the tricky work of template making and do something that requires very little cerebral activity, like removing old varnish. It helps me think things through, plan the next steps. Though if I let myself think to far ahead I find I am staring, motionless out of a porthole imagining how it will be in a few summers time, anchored in a quite bay, the sun setting on a nice cold beer, my comfy bunk calling, the days sailing fresh in my mind…

“but oh those summer nights”