Being Saturday we decide to hang around the cottage a little longer than usual but unfortunately the cleaner doesn’t have the same idea and turns up early.
The internet connection is good this morning and I am able to chat with Jo and Kev who were, until relatively recently, taking time out to go sailing, but are now back at work in the UK. We spent quite a bit of time with them in various Caribbean islands before they went to the USA before heading home. It is good to be in touch again.
We get to the boatyard around 10.30. There is one guy already there finishing the hand stripping and another one is all geared up in the protective clothing sanding the other side down with a machine. Dust flys everywhere and we have to wait for them to finish before being able to get on ourselves. They are supposed to work until noon but just after 11 they have all cleared off. At least it means we can get on. Mike rubs the boom down again while I get on with some tidying and cleaning.
Mike mixes the two part special marine paint and while we wait for it to ferment or something, we have lunch, a strange mix of packet langoustine soup with pasta thrown in – beggars can’t be choosers. Actually it’s not bad. I’d be pretty pissed off if I had paid for it in a restaurant but actually I have eaten worse.
Just as it is time to go and start the painting, it pours with rain. We wait it out – it’s heavy but doesn’t last long. Unfortunately I have left my canvas shoes at the bottom of the ladder and when we go to start the paint job, I have to put my feet into soggy shoes. Still, it keeps my feet cool.
The biting things that hang around under the boat are out with a vengeance today and I hop and wriggle around as I try to apply the first coat of paint. Mike holds the paint tray, unhelpfully pointing out all the places he thinks I miss as I roll my way up and down the boom. I am the one who has done all the painting and decorating in our home for the last 22 years (although I do remember him doing a bit before that).
Photo: Trying to get a perfect finish
Anyway, eventually it is done and I am very unimpressed by the result. Although the coverage is good, you can still see the depressions made by the dents and dings in the original paintwork and as far am I am concerned, the boom looks like it had a case of adolescent acne and now has the pockmark scars. Mike is far more optimistic about the end result. I will be putting on another coat tomorrow and then it will be rubbed down and waxed. After that, there’s just the mast and the bow’s crossbeam to tackle.
Photo: The boom; better than before but not good enough for me
We get our lift back to the hotel and Mike gets on with the programming work he is doing for the World Cruising Club (the organisers for the World Arc). I lie on the bed, reading and listening to the waves until it gets too dark to see then I pop on a dressing gown and sit outside with Mike on the PC for a while. Eventually the dive-bombing insects get too much for me and drive me back inside for a shower. Later Mike joins me and we watch a DVD whilst lying on the bed, both trying not to scratch at our mounting number of bites. Mike falls asleep quite early but I am now well into a book and carry on reading until it’s finished.
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