All of a sudden April drew nigh and I knew time for maintenance to Whimbrel would be calling loudly.

It is not often that the month of April swings by with so little rain: we can’t actually remember the last time we experienced rain, even the ‘famous’ April showers have been absent.

During March I carried out a job long overdue. Since the boat was built all the negative connections were on an ever growing terminal strip accessed under a cockpit locker seat.

I obtained two busbars and transferred all wires to these over the course of a couple of days. Some wires had to be lengthened to make the run in. Having completed that job, I manufactured a boxing with a sliding cover for access – all completed as April dawned.

Back in February, we had popped over to Faversham to pick up our serviced sails, new dodgers and cockpit cover from Wilkinson’s Sails. I had pre booked a Valentines night away at a rather nice place we know locally too so we had a great time!

The boat’s old sails had been in use since October and it was about time the change back was made: we had plans to sail up to Limehouse for Easter, taking in the Passion Play at Trafalgar Square.

In the event, returning from the west country (Dartmouth) where we had enjoyed a holiday, we both went down with Covid-19. The mate’s ‘plague’ hung around and it took nearly two weeks to clear to a negative position so we abandoned going up the Thames and had a couple of nights away on the Medway.

In the meantime, various areas of varnish were attacked. The winter’s damage wasn’t great so once sanded back these areas had coat after coat applied. I apply at least eight coats to bare wood…

Maintenance took a break over Easter Week when we got away – well not quite: time was used to build coats on those numerous areas.

With the forecast, we had intended on sailing round the back of the Swale for a tranquil night in the South Deep, however, upon reaching Kingsferry Bridge and initially being told a lift time, the operator came back and said that due to traffic congestion we couldn’t go through. No update on when was available – apparently there had been an accident…

We cancelled our request and sailed round to Stangate Creek instead.

It was an enchanting evening anchored along the west of Stangate along Greenborough Marsh. A huge flock of godwits with their russet fronts fed as the tide left the mud banks. A couple of avocet were spotted too.

The next day we poked right up into the entrance to Lower Halstow Dock with a fickle breeze before sailing to Queenborough for the evening. Of course, a pickled egg or two with a couple of pints just had to be enjoyed ashore at the Admiral’s Arm…

Returning to our home mooring, I soon had a window off for resealing and stripping back of varnish coating where it had broken down around the frame.

It was cockpit varnishing time this year too…

We attacked this after a morning on the club’s work party which was a mistake for post covid we both have lacked energy!

It got done…

While Christobel cleaned up the mess and wiped the sanded area down, I added another coat around ‘my’ window – then she took a rest while I varnished round: working area is limited and the mate does not like applying varnish…

With the grand conditions, I went overboard onto walking boards to strip back the bottom of the transom where the varnish had broken down. When doing this I’d decided to raise the boot top to keep the varnish out of the water. A few coats of primer were applied and a couple of hard boot top. It’ll get another when we antifoul in a few weeks time.

And so, the generally showery month of April draws to a close, with continued dry spring-like weather.

The May Bank Holiday weekend looms and we plan to be out there enjoying another bout of early season sailing in what looks currently like benign conditions. It wontr be ‘hot’ but pleasant…

That is good enough for us!