It was a bit cool & damp this morning and at one point it rained quite hard. I am really pleased that we built the Hay Barn, the only time I get wet is moving from the workshop to the barn and back.

I decided to tackle a number of smaller jobs today since reducing the number of tasks on the list is very motivating.

First up, removing the shelf blocking one of the chain plate bolts.

The reason for the removal, apart from being able to access where the bolt wll be is to cut a notch in the back to allow a small socket to be used to tighten the nut when I get to that point. You can see it in the upper right of the shelf.

This is where the shelf was before I removed it.

These are the holes through the hull where the bolts for the chain plate locate. The plywood backing pad will be removed and replaced by a longer piece of stainless steel flat bar which is on order.

This is the inside part of the forward chain plate on the starboard side. These two bolts are considerably easier to access but even better with the shelf removed. When I get to doing the port side, the shelf will be removed first.

Next was to fill the old screw holes from the bobstay stem fitting, three of which go right through the stem.

This looks quite messy  but there is an epoxy backing pad between the hull and the old fitting and this will be removed in due course, probably when the hull is in the workshop and inverted, so there was no need to make this look pretty. I'll go back over it in a couple of hours when the epoxy is no longer sticky and remove the excess.

The old backing pack under the first chain plate was tidied up, it still looks a little rough but it will be sanded when the hull is inverted and just how much depends on how much of the hull is to be sheathed.

This next task wasn't on the initial list but since I found the hook, washers and screws I added another one right forward on both sides.

I only put the same number of hooks as could be found on Shoal Waters initially since that was my starting point. I've since found that I needed another hook.

The reason for this is that my cockpit cover reaches a lot further forward than on Shoal Waters. I made the original cover long enough to reach over the hatch, but I found that only half-covering the hatch meant that the sun bleached half the hatch. So I added an extension with Tina's help. The cover now extends right over the hatch and necessitates another hook.

Compare this to the cockpit cover on Shoal Waters in the photo above. As you can see, her cover doesn't cover the hatch at all. I suspect that Charles had to bail out the cockpit a fair bit since rain water could get in past the front edge of the cover. Not a lot, admittedly, but enough. This is the main reason I made Naiad's cover longer. Rainwater can still get in if it is exceedingly windy but that doesn't happen very often.

I also hooked up the battery charger to the ship's battery since the reduced light from both being Winter and in the Hay Barn means that the solar panels do not produce sufficient charge to keep the battery topped up.

So, the additional tasks that have been added to the list are:

• Add a new cockpit cover hook forward on each side
• Recharge & recondition the ship's battery
• Refit the bird netting so that it fits properly
• Tie the clips on the bird netting to the netting so that they do not fall off when unclipping the netting
• Remove tabernacle & remount pad.

There will certainly be more as the work progresses.