Preparations - Part 6

March 30th.

I left work yesterday for what will be a three-year holiday. Life is getting a bit surreal at the moment!

Today, I put the first coat of anti-fouling paint on the bottom of the boat. I’ll keep pasting it on until I run out because we will be in the briny longer than the usual 9 months that we keep the boat on the water. Tomorrow is promised to be a reasonable day after a week of rain so it will be the ideal opportunity.

My mild concerns about the iron-man are completely unfounded. He pre-fabricated all the parts for the gantry that will hold the solar panel and the wind-generator and came to fit last weekend. The wind was howling and it soon started to rain. This did not make life easy when trying to weld the kit in-situ. I was freezing my butt-off but ‘iron-man’ Roger soldiered-on without batting an eyelid. On the Sunday it was still pissing-down and blowing a gale so he brought down a large tarpaulin which we draped over the structure and he finished-off the fittings and welded the whole lot-up. It looks absolutely fab and exactly what I wanted

My job was to hold the tarpaulin off the structure to prevent it melting or catching alight. Later in the evening, I was feeling sunburnt and had raw eyes. By midnight, I couldn’t open my eyes and had to take a trip to casualty to get checked-out for ‘Arc-eye’ (burnt corneas). They are ok now but my face is now shedding the top few layers of skin!

Home

Fliss has been beavering away getting the house prepared. A couple of weeks ago we had someone agree to let the house so we are definitely out by end of April. She sold the leather suites on e-bay for a reasonable price and the young chap wanted anything else that was on offer. He is turning-up in a few minutes with a large van and (hopefully) will relieve us of two beds, wardrobes, dining room table, chairs etc etc. Tonight, we will be reclining in the living-room on sun-loungers. Fliss has bought some liqueur to make cocktails and we will turn the heating and the lights up so that we feel the part.

Fliss has also packed most of our personal items and has started shipping the stuff to Broadstairs to her Mothers attic. Things are starting to look a bit bare but this is not a bad thing because it will make it much easier to leave when the time comes. Apart from re-pointing the chimney and replacing the ariel, there is just a bit of minor decoration left and home affairs are completed.

Finally, there is all the paperwork involved with sorting-out affairs, accounts, tax return and re-directing mail.

Boat

Meanwhile, Moodys’ boatyard are behind on their schedule and will not get the new engine fitted until after Easter (most boaties want to launch before Easter to make best use of the holidays). I am relieved because I still need to get the bimini fabricated and…

• Finish anti-fouling
• Re-do the varnishing
• Replace and re-wire the batteries
• Fit and wire-up wind-generator and solar panel
• Clear the boat of all accumulated junk
• Take all the junk in the dining-room to the boat and stow-it
• Do all those other things …..

So. Looks like we are on our way!

Here’s how the rear of the boat looked like with the original stainless steel pushpit (low guard-rail. I will post the results of the new superstructure once I have taken a picky.

And here is a piccy of our house that we will soon be leaving!