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Good morning everyone. A lovely Currier and Ives morning here in mid-April with a fresh 5" of snow on the ground. We spent yesterday preparing for the storm and here it is.

The yawl boat is safely tucked back in to the barn. Small boats have been shuffled. We managed to get some sanding done outdoors to keep the dust down inside the barn. Even with our vacuum systems the dust gets into the air. You will notice that the crew are always wearing respirators and some of you may wonder what they really look like. The photo for this blog shows Becka stripping a varnished hatch that was just repaired with a new piece of wood right down the center. She did a beautiful job and we stained it with a mahogany wood filler to try to smooth out the years of experience this hatch has seen. As I tell the crew, "it ain't a Steinway". Still we do the best we can to get a fresh coat of paint on to everything that is exposed to the weather and all of the high traffic areas below decks as well. So in response to a comment left by Al from Alabama, yes we paint or varnish practically everything on deck. It takes thousands of hours but having been through one refit of the schooner I can tell you that the maintenance does pay for itself after a while. We have never been accused of taking the easy way around things like maintenance.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.
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