Week 3 Life sur le hard
 
I think I’m a serial varnisher who’s loosing the will to varnish! On the works completed list there is: Head (toilet to you landlubbers) and our rather bijoux cabin. On the works in progress list there is: Companionway steps Sole (floor) I’m overcome with a feeling of deja vu! Head door Saloon table Galley area (don’t get me started on that). The above items are in various states of varnish some are nearing completion and some are sort of not really! My only excuse is dust, it’s blooming everywhere. The companionway steps are on hold untill Herman the German (bless his little flying sparks) puts away his grinder! But I am cracking on with the other bits and bobs as best I can. Week 3 sur le hard has been an odd sort of week really, the Captain was preparing Stella’s hull for her first coat of High protect, its all and I mean ALL in the preparation. By midweek we were all set to apply the first coat of super duper High protect (at last putting something on rather than taking it off). We’d been e-mailing those rather nice people at Hempel as we had un petite question about applying the High Protect. Stella was for want of a better phrase ‘a bit moist around the edges’. Well she’s been in the water since July 2006! Anyway the long and the short of it is they advised us not to use it on this occasion. Which is a bit of a shame really as we’ve already bought over a gallon of the stuff (nearer 2 to be precise). But what can you do, when the man from Hempel he say ‘No’ you listen. So it was straight to the ‘Light primer’ stage. I-pods in we set to it. A bit of Neil Diamond for me (get you through anything Neil can) and a bit of an eclectic mix for the Captain (everything from Black Sabbath to Wham). Felt good to be putting some paint on at last! When you look at the pics you’ll see Stella looking rather grand with a blue bottom, another coat will go on tomorrow. Then hopefully we can start getting some anti-foul on it’s all getting very exciting shipmates. On a slightly non boaty bottom matter, after two days (told you’d I made a lot) of eating my ‘non-one pot vegetable delight’, we decided we could take no more and the last portion was to go to Bonnie & Clyde two local street dogs who do very well for themselves in the marina. There’s an animal charity here run by some Brits and they keep an eye on the cutesome twosome as well. Bonnie & Clyde had become regular visitors to Stella, ever since we’d given them some chicken and bones from the butcher. They must have got wind of the veggie extravaganza because they haven’t been round much lately. Although I have seen them hanging out with a retriever from a Spanish boat, they obviously prefer Paella!! Takeaway count is nil as is number of propellors on Stella. Hopefully both those figures will change next week. Off to do a bit of you know what begins with ‘v’ and ends in ‘ish’. Captains grinding away at the stern of the boat (be afraid very afraid) Love & light primer The vegetarians XX P.S Do you know anyone who wants to buy some ‘High Protect?’
Sunday, 13 April 2008