Cleaning and excited about it too!

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This was a full weekend of cleaning. The layers of dirt from all the sandblasting and grinding was endless and I expect we will be finding sand and grime in small crevices and cracks forever. Without water on board, we had no choice but to use the hose pipe to spray down everything. It worked well and the water just ran down into the newly painted bilges. Patrick set up a small pump and we just pumped it out through the hand basin

It was so satisfying and now we can start to stay on board overnight, for the first time in over a year. I am so excited, even though she is still not back in the water - we are waiting for the tanks and engine, but it feels like we are getting there.

We still need to replace things like the bed headboards and side lining, which I suspect has been there since she was first fitted out. We need better clothes storage and the toilet/wet room needs a complete re-do. All have been added to the To Do list.

Painting... the end?

Finally - its been a long time coming; new steel fitted, one round of sandblasting, one round of grinding, three coats of black epoxy 2-pac, one coat of primer and this weekend two coats of anti-foul. All she needs now is a thick black top-line and her new anodes. Then that’s the outside hull done - phewwwww.

Engine bay work

We started prepping the engine bay which will our focus over the next few weeks - grinding, painting etc. Also measured up the space for fuel and water tanks which need to be made up and fitted. All before the return of our refurbished engine

Another weekend, another paint job

Deux has been on the hard for a year now and we are under pressure to get her back in the water. No engine or tanks have been fitted yet, but it would be nice to feel her float again (and not have to climb up and down the ladder). We spent the weekend applying a second coat of epoxy paint (such a messy job). Next we will apply an undercoat and lastly the antifoul. We still have some welding to be done on the deck and some woodwork to be attended to, but we are almost water tight and then its back into the water. We are planning to refit the engine and tanks while she is in the water but if necessary we will lift her back out.

Treasure Hunt

I was set to task to look for “a chunk of metal with a split on the one side, somewhere under the boat”. Patrick recalled seeing it about a 8 months ago when he was crawling around. He realised last week that this “chunk of metal” formed part of the rope cutter and would cost in the region of £400 to replace.

Here was the challenge: in the past year, the boat has been lifted back into the water and out again, re-positioned on the blocks. We have had months of rain, the boat has been shot blasted twice. Almost half the hull ground away and new plates welded in with men crawling around under the boat. The ground is just grimy, oily, mud!

Despite all that… using a piece of wood and adopting squirrel like movements, I found it. Felt like I had won the lottery! It cleaned up nicely too.


It takes a village...

After dipping, the hull needed some grinding to remove a little residual rust and then painting. Just when we thought we were never going to get done before the rain came, friends arrived, grinders at the ready and paint overalls on standby. Cannot put into words how happy this made us. The job was over in a few hours instead of days.

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