A Productive Sunday

Judging by the weather forecast, this may be the last day of this very welcome extension of summer, so we've made the most of it. After a reasonably relaxed start and trip to the shop, I got going on my tasks for the day.

First off was topping up the batteries; this completes the end of cruising season jobs in the engine room. After coffee, I finished what I’d started with the paintwork. Where the inside surface of the hull meets the well deck is vulnerable to water attack; it’s very easy to leave fenders lying in those corners and for muck and mud to accumulate there, holding damp against the paint.

This in turn leads to rust breaking through, especially on the welds which for some reason are always more rust prone than the plain steel. Having rubbed them down and treated with Rust Konverta, I’ve now painted the vulnerable sections with blacking rather than ordinary paint.

The blacking will be more resistant to water penetration and is very easy to touch up. In due course, we plan to refinish the well deck itself with Andy Russell Gunnel Black for the same reasons. I also repainted the areas at the end of the bow cants, where the scrolls start, with blue touch in paint.

This took us up to lunchtime and a well deserved rest. Later we had a chat with our neighbour Lisa on Caitlin Jayne, as she runs a business doing artwork to vinyl and canvas transfers. She quoted us for producing a photo of mine on canvas at a size large enough to hang in the lounge of the lodge. We’ll get her to do that once we’re into the lodge.

There followed a bit of exercise, walking round the marina, since when we’ve had a marathon session comparing the Dunelm and Argos sites for most of the stuff we need to equip the lodge. We’ve now got a shopping list of things to check when Elanor takes us to Dunelm on Wednesday.

We’ll do the actual order on line for delivery in the week after next.

And that’s about it for today; it doesn’t look a lot when just written out like that, but I for one will be glad to get the dinner on and chill out with a pint.