extract from an email from an intrepid contributor to the editor of the MQ:

‘I arrived in Nova Scotia a couple of days ago, 24 days from Martinique, with a fresh coat of paint on everything and new rigging and sails. It seems a bit excessive to make a 4500 mile round trip in order to get a suitable temperature to apply paint, but if I had stayed in Newfoundland all I would have done over the winter was drink screech with the b’yes. You cannot paint a steel boat in winter in Newfoundland, drunk or sober.’

for further background, look here