For those who haven’t heard, Dinah has had some bad luck recently. As you can see in the picture below her mast is no more. It actually broke a while back, but I haven’t had a chance to post an update. No other damage was done, and the drama involved was quite limited. It could have been much worse!

On a more positive note, the new mast is now ordered. It should be here before xmas. So in the meantime myself and Bob have been busy working through the list of improvements identified during the summer. Handholds everywhere down below, crash barriers to protect the boat and myself when a large wave washes me off my feet, re-seating the ballast pump to solve that airlock problem, extra electronics, satellite telephony, etc, etc. She should be fully Ostar ready by xmas, and I might even sail home to Cobh for the festive season!

In the meantime, I’m heading off at the end of this week to take part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race again. Shorts and t-shirt for a week offshore. Fully crewed boat, so lots of rest. Big boat with lots of comforts. It’s a tough life! Keep an eye on the tracker… I’ll be on the Bermudan boat, “Monterey”. We probably won’t be particularly competitive, and it can’t really be compared with solo sailing on Dinah, but at least it will allow me keep in tune with navigation and offshore tactics. And it should be fun!