I have several things on order that should arrive in the next few days but until they do, several tasks that have been started cannot be completed. Take the chain plates, for example. The next step for these is the interior and exterior backing pads. But the wood and the metal have not arrived yet so I cannot make the pads and so the task cannot be completed. So I now need to look through my list of tasks to find those that can be started and perhaps finished without having to wait for something.

This is one task that can be completed, the sampson post. I have sanded it down to bare wood where needed and lightly sanded the existing varnish were heavy sanding was not required, hung it up in the workshop and applied a coat of varnish. This will need another five or six coats which should take quite a while since the temperature is not warm so the drying time of each coat will be at least a day if not more. I may have to take this into the house if the coats take too long to dry and hang it up in the work room for varnishing.

This is another task that needs to be done but has to wait until the eyebolt is fitted through the stem since the nut on the inside may well require a modification to the chain locker. However, I have put all the anchor chain into the locker to see how much I can cut off the top.

This is another task that can be done. As you can see the edge of the centre plate touching the ground is lightly rusted. I'll need to put some rust converter on that after wire brushing the loose stuff off followed by some zinc paint. It has been sitting in the workshop to dry after being washed so it should be ready for the next step.