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Tramontana at Conwy Marina
  Photograph by Martin Hansen

  

Preparations

Tramontana's 2018 voyage began with a couple of weeks for 'getting ready for sea'. This involved both planned and unplanned maintenance. The unplanned revolved around this photograph's ladder against mast. Whilst admiring my boat early one morning I noticed that the ageing varnish on the mast had started to blister. Closer inspection revealed these were full of rain water. To my horror the varnish was thus keeping fresh water against the wood of the mast, the opposite of the intended purpose and a recipe for rot. Extracting the mast was too big a job to contemplate. Instead I resorted to popping and peeling the blisters and then, literally, 'glossing over' the entire sorry mess with black paint.
 

  
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