Two black jobs

Jobs involving the colour black have been the theme of the day, first with black paint and then with the black hearted sinner dog otherwise known as Sally the hound.

Sheila has been complaining for some time about the state of the port side gunwale, which never got a fresh coat of black sheen this spring. So while she was off getting my paper and taking a stroll round the Water Park lake, I made a start, sorting out the brushes, paint and stuff and getting the bucket and sponge out of the bow locker.

I vigorously brushed down the rusty area of the heavy rubbing strake that protects the bow of the boat, and then gave it a going over with wet and dry paper. Then I washed the whole area that was to be painted. Purists might comment that I should have used a rust converter and then primed the rubbing strake, but frankly, since it takes an awful lot of punishment even with skilled steerers like Sheila, there's just no point in taking too much trouble over it.

Whilst the washed area was drying, I went over the main cabin side and forward bulkhead, using a rag soaked in white spirit to clean off places where the Oxford Blue had got chipped. Then I took a large artists paint brush and touched in those places.

Sheila came back whilst this was going on, so we had a coffee before I got started on the heavy work with the black sheen. I used a foam wedge brush to do the tricky bits at the boundaries with other colours, then a big 3" brush for the rest. I was interested to try it this way; previously, I've used a small roller for this job.

It seems to be much of a muchness both in terms of effort and amount of paint used. By twelve, the job was done bar tidying up. Sheila had helped in the final stages, holding the boat away from the side, and glaring at those inconsiderate sods people who don't see the need to slow down even when they can see that someone is working on the side of their boat.

After lunch, Elanor and Sally arrived. Elanor was on her way to a performance of Riverdance at Lichfield, and left Sal with us for the afternoon. I took her for a walk in due course, up to Tatenhill Lock, across the canal and over the fields towards Tatenhill village, deliberately coming out somewhat to the west to increase the amount of exercise involved.

We had to do a bit of road walking on narrow country roads, which wasn't too pleasant, but eventually found the footpath leading back towards the canal, emerging onto the track which runs along the offside of the canal opposite the Bridge Inn.

I worked out this route with the aid of a bit of OS map printed off from the OS Get a map service. It's free unless you want to use their print service – they obviously haven't heard of partial screen capture, which produces a perfectly useable map square for this kind of shortish walk.

For anything more adventurous, I would want to use the proper purchased sheet anyway.

Sally is looking a good deal better exercised now than she did first thing yesterday, between her chase on the Chase and now her walk with me.

Tomorrow, we'll head back to Alrewas for Sheila's dental appointment on Tuesday.