Back in January, the first daffodil came up here, and spring has been springing along ever since. Then this week it disappeared. We have swallows and baby sparrows in nest boxes all round the house, but its been arctic for a few days. It makes you want to curl up and light the fire indoors all over again. Anyway, next week the sun is coming out again - abnd so continues the Highland's weather - its a journey between extremes. Its bonkers.

That last paragraph was me being British - because we are obsessed with the weather. That part is true, but we have a good excuse: tomorrow the boat goes back in the water - unless the wind blows too much, or from the wrong direction, or if something doesn't work, in which case we will miss the slot. If that happens, the next time we can be relaunched will be on the high tide in two weeks time. This is how we roll here - with the tides and weather. You can't defeat either of them, so you have to accept the outcome. All being well, it should be entertaining... In case you missed the post from last October, we are reversing that process. i.e. Temptress (now with her mast back in place) gets put in a travel hoist and trundled down to the water's edge. We get on board and basically wait for the tide to come up. When the tide is in (around 9pm), we can start the engine and reverse out of the hoist and pick our way through the reef to open water.

The vague plan is to come back here overnight - but I'll let you know how that goes in the next installment. Fingers crossed.... the sailing season may be about to start.