This morning, as part of getting Dusky Dolphin ready for a planned 3-week sailing trip north along our coast, we set up the world’s most beautiful cross trees.

When we bought Dusky Dolphin from Peter Bielby in 2000, the crossed pieces of timber (called “cross trees”) that support the boom while we are in harbour were even then quite old and faded. Lately they’ve begun to split apart, so we asked Tristan the woodworking guru what we should do about this. After he’d laughed and asked if they were trees that were cross and so needed anger management, he said that he and Blaine would be very happy to make some new ones out of West Australian jarrah.

Here’s the result, all sanded and varnished and complete with white dolphins painted by Blaine.