I am still determined to leave personal diatribe out of this blog, I do enough of that nonsense on Facebook afterall, but in this particular case it’s very much connected with my plans for Kudu, so I thought I would issue a little update on where we’re at.
A couple of weeks ago I resigned from my job at TradeDoubler, for reasons which will remain constrained to my rantings in the pub, but this has put a small kink in my plans for the Jester. It is no doubt ultimately a positive thing, but it does present a few fresh challenges.
Before two weeks ago my only concern was time. I had a steady stream of money coming in and could fund all the work required, but I didn’t really have the time to carry it out. Between accumulating all the sailing experience I possibly can this year, while also performing some fairly extensive refitting to Kudu, I was pushing the limits of my annual leave allowance at work. This situation has now done something of a U turn and I have all the time I need, but no funds to do it.
I have renewed my mooring so I have three months left in London. Hopefully I can get some contract work during that time and leave London for the summer with some cash behind me. This would be the ideal scenario since I’d then have both the time and the money to carry out all the work required… also the weather since Winter does make me procrastinate so. 
That said, I have been working for nine years now and haven’t had a proper holiday for a very long time – all my holiday last year was spent traveling up North to work on Kudu whenever possible – so I think I’m about due a couple of weeks off. My final day at work is the 6th March, so I’m going to spend the remainder of the month finishing the jobs I’ve accumulated over the winter; fit new Harken winches (thanks boatshow!), fit the Eberspacher (just in time for summer), and finish the repair to the stern locker.
That’s the plan anyway. My ideal March, dotted with days of relaxing and tinkering with the boat at my leisure. The sobering reality is I’m not exactly sat on a huge pile of cash so I expect I’m going to be getting quite nervous towards the end of the month so you could see some drastic action from the adventures of Kudu. Come April I might weigh anchor and sail off into the sunrise with my last thousand quid, chasing the wake of Shrimpy… if only. 
