Winter can seem a time of short days and dark evenings. Our boating season may have finished for the year, but we still have plenty to do aboard Maddison in readiness for the next year. But we make good use of this "out of season" time, getting Maddison ready for her "new season" guests.

Maddison will need her annual paint job. This involves a week in a wet dock, where Michele and myself will sand down any damage to the paintwork and repaint the entire boat.

Re-Blacking the hull. Maddison will be taken out of the water. Her underside scraped and cleaned. Then examined and re-blacked with a water-resistant coating.

Stern Gear Maintenance. The propeller and rudder are examined and serviced as needed.

Engine Servicing. Engine servicing and control gear needs to be undertaken.

Internal refurbishments. Anything we haven't been able to replace during the boating season, due to time constraints, is replaced.

To be fair. This keeps us very busy over the winter, and the days fly by as we look forward to the start of the boating season for the year ahead.