Treasure Hunt

I was set to task to look for “a chunk of metal with a split on the one side, somewhere under the boat”. Patrick recalled seeing it about a 8 months ago when he was crawling around. He realised last week that this “chunk of metal” formed part of the rope cutter and would cost in the region of £400 to replace.

Here was the challenge: in the past year, the boat has been lifted back into the water and out again, re-positioned on the blocks. We have had months of rain, the boat has been shot blasted twice. Almost half the hull ground away and new plates welded in with men crawling around under the boat. The ground is just grimy, oily, mud!

Despite all that… using a piece of wood and adopting squirrel like movements, I found it. Felt like I had won the lottery! It cleaned up nicely too.


It takes a village...

After dipping, the hull needed some grinding to remove a little residual rust and then painting. Just when we thought we were never going to get done before the rain came, friends arrived, grinders at the ready and paint overalls on standby. Cannot put into words how happy this made us. The job was over in a few hours instead of days.

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Moving Day

Sadly we got to the stage where staying on the boat while doing renovations was just becoming unbearable. So we hired a transit van and after 12 hours of packing we finally fitted a 34ft classic steel motorboat into a van. Getting the van home was easy - we then had to fit it all into the house !!

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A much needed break !! - (27 Dec- 7 Jan)

After what feels like years of working (lovingly) fixing, repairing and improving our favourite girl, we are going to close up the varnish tin, close up the hardener and epoxy, close up the paint tins, switch off the sander, put down the sandpaper and paint-bushes (in the meantime I will put down the whip, although I won’t put it away…..). We are going to stock the fridge, fill up the lockers, restock the wine and rum, fill up the fuel and water, plug in the ice-maker, charge up the kindle, plug in the heater, leave the marina and spend some time away. The plan ….. do as little as humanly possible.

We aim to spend a few nights in some of our favourite places on and around the Isle of Wight, with New Years Eve in Cowes.

We will start at Bembridge Harbour for two nights, Cowes (Shepards Wharf) for three nights, Lymington for two nights, Yarmouth for two nights, then back to Cowes for one night and then home. As much as we would love a night in Newton Creek, without a reliable generator we will be without heat, so we will skip that for now and save that piece of paradise for summer.

I will keep you updated as we enjoy our trip and hope you will enjoy it with us.

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Update: Got some new prints up in galley..

Finally got the leaks under control and the back of the galley is finally dry for the first time in 3 years. Chasing leaks is not for the impatient man. Painted, then painted, then painted and have now got my lovely nautical prints up. One is the alphabet in nautical flags and the other is easy to work out using the alphabet as a key. NOT DIFFICULT! Thank you Glyn West Design!!

One step closer to Deux looking like as perfect as I imagined she would look the moment I set eyes on her ….

Working on the back windows

We have started working on the back windows (click here to see more) - keeping an eye on the weather. Its beginning to look great and hopefully the boat will be drier this winter - once the glass is back in (here’s hoping).

Update: Dealing with leaking windows

So the weather forecast predicted a months rain in an hour.  We thought we better prepare for possible leaks on the boat..... Old plastic bag, masking tape - problem sorted!

Woodwork - when does it end?

Buying a classic wooden boat translates down to only two things.... sandpaper and varnish, sand and varnish (and repeat).  Before Deux I thought sandpaper was sandpaper and the stuff in the garage was just a larger version of the nail file next to my bed. And varnish was just the stuff that came in pretty colours and required a steadier hand than I had at the best of times. The varnish Deux required was a boring clear(ish) colour, but the results were beautiful (and also required a steady hand!). The sandpaper was nothing like my nail file and I learnt to start with 80 and work my way to 1200 (something) - will check and update.  It is an ongoing job, but in the meantime... some info on the varnish and some before and after pics

Engines batteries and starter motors

Today would be day 5 (weekend 3) of diesel "de-bugging".  Except Deux was not having any of that! After having run 3 different pumps to pump the diesel through endless filters, the boat batteries have given up.  We charged the batteries overnight and this morning still dead.  Patrick took the starter motor out and jump-started that .....  A little clean up and some TLC and the starter motor went back in, connected up the batteries and we have had success.  She started like a dream.

SO its back to the diesel bug.  No fun in almost 30 degree heat !