 Mar 26 2007, 02:18 PM |
Step 56:
don't fear the reaper
The finale is in sight, the fanfare and the trumpets will play loudly sometime soon, but not just yet.
The base plate was the object of our affections this weekend. With myself doing the "shit" bit at the back around the swim, prop and rudder yann got on with the scraping and cup-brushing with his angle grinder on the base plate.
we were well ahead of schedule on Saturday with one coat of vactan over the base plate, then a coat of bitumen, a 3rd coat on the sides.. the weed hatch was out and scrubbed down, vactanned and also had a coat of bitumen on the hull facing side.
So we have a bit of time to go shopping and in between taking the dog to the vet, picking up some stuff from my old flat we managed to nip into a sofa shop and buy a sofa.
Sunday the final coat of bitumen went on the base plate but not before fetching the sofa from croydon.
I measured it, measured it again before committing to buy.
what I failed to account for was the mental way our kitchen is laid out with a kink in the middle. this meant we had to slide the sofa on the work surfaces. The distance from work surface to the ceiling = 101cm... the depth of the sofa coming through = 101cm.
the only little snag was the downlighters 5mm protrusion which meant plenty of heaving, pushing and pulling to get around them.
oh and the moment where i knocked the fireblanket and the resident Big Bertha spider jumped out annoyed. I shouted to yann that I had a small problem and I wasnt moving until I sorted it out... holding the sofa in one hand I searched around for something to catch it in... I hate killing anything so I prefer the "catch it and move it method". However when a flipflop was handed to me through the 3cm gap between the sofa and the back door Im afraid Bertha became a little less tall a fair bit wider.
Sorry bertie... wrong time, wrong place.
So the sofa was in and back to the bottom blacking. the second coat went on with a roller and was finished fairly quickly. my stick like arms crying with pain having to do the "shit" bit at the back. our sloping swims are a real arse of a job because you can neither sit, stand or kneel. you have to bend sideways with head to one side.
meanwhile Yann was attempting to learn how to weld using bits of old anode strap. Every few minutes I heard cursing in French followed shortly by him coming to show me the latest attempt at joining two pieces of metal. Needless to say, it takes a bit longer than a day to learn to weld. I tried to tell him not to expect too much at a first attempt. His foray into the world of the welder was abruptly cut short when the neighbours complained that their Television and lights were flickering and dimming as we were sucking all the power from the system!
one of the residents of the affected boat complained that welding should be done on the maintenance pontoon... SO er, how exactly would you weld anodes on underwater? dippy woman.
SO, finally all we are waiting for is the "professional" welder to put our anodes on and we should be craned back in on Thursday.
once this is done I will have a recap on the total costs of our do-it-yourself Hull servicing.
pics to follow of finished bottom and new sofa.
Im off for a lay down this coming weekend while Yann services the engine.
Our Marina departure has been delayed a week so we plan to leave on Good friday sometime.
Thats T-minus 11 days. Barring any flooding on that damned river thames of course.
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