a nasty scrape

Our roof is in a bit of state, with peeling paint on almost all of the 14 panels between the skylights.



This is largely due to the type of paint that has been used, which lifts up in great sheets as soon as any moisture gets in underneath it. Following the success of using Cuprinol wood paint on the planter boxes on the back deck, we decided that it would make sense to scrape off the ineffective gloss deck paint and repaint the panels with cuprinol, which would soak into the wood and protect it from within as well as providing a nice finish.

So, taking advantage of the amazing sunny weather we've had over the last few days, I set to with a blowtorch and a paint scraper and started stripping off the layers of paint. In the process we found that the roof has been several different colours down the years, from very light and dark blues to a deep sea green.




Each panel took at least a couple of hours to strip, then i sanded it down before painting it with cuprinol.

The reason i'm under the umbrella is to avoid adding to the impressive vest-shaped case of sunburn i got doing the previous panel.


We've done 5 panels in 5 days, so even taking into account work and weather it shouldn't take us too long to get it finished, then we can move onto painting the decks and, excitingly, getting the mast back up (it was ripped out of the deck on contact with a low bridge on our journey up her, less than a day into owning Peter!).

moving house

The other day our neighbours went out for the day, which gave us the chance to view them side on. Their boat is about 7m longer than ours, or to put it another way, HUGE!

itchin' for a kitchen

The end wall of our kitchen looked like this:

because the previous owners had a built a worktop to go over the fridge and freezer, and we then built some shelves to go on top.

Now, due to having a big tall fridge freezer and a load of free kitchen cupboards it made sense to tear down the old and rebuild it in a more efficient, tidier way.

So, we emptied the shelves

took apart the very sturdy countertop and removed the old floppy bits of mdf covering the hole in the floor.

discovered an old water pump (possibly the previous pump for the kitchen sink) in the bilges, with a switch still mounted on a little shred of worktop

were briefly disheartened by the sight of the mucky wall and lack of floor (while Vortex relished the chance to explore somewhere dirty and dark)

but rallied and covered it all up with our free, donated kitchen cupboards

before putting the shelves back on top and relaxing in the glow of a job well done.

no pun for compass

In the wheelhouse there is a big old compass mounted in front of the wheel, with a little window to look into to see the compass heading. It was only while talking to phil yesterday, who came round to finish bleeding the fuel injectors (the engine is now a-ok and roaring away healthily!), that we reallised that the housing comes off, to reveal a beautiful, gimbal mounted compass inside.


Not only that, but the little door in the side opens so that you can put a tea light in there to light the compass at night, withut spoiling your night vision. Good eh?

put that in your pipe

While clearing space in the engine room for Phil i found this huge collection of big pipes (the clear pipe is about 1 and a half inch diameter, to give you a sense of scale).

the doctor is in

Our engine is a big beast, a DS8 R01 Scania Marine Diesel, six cylinder four stroke engine with direct fuel injection. Although we've never had any problems with it, we've also never had it looked at or serviced ourselves, and rather than get an enormous repair bill in a couple of years time, we thought it wise to get it serviced.


Luckily our neighbour Phil is a great mechanic and so yesterday he came over to give it a once over, clean out the system, replace the oil, change the fuel and oil filters and change the fan belts. Looking very dapper in his white coat, he worked all day on it, and baring a final 20 minutes today to finish priming the fuel injectors we should be all sorted. Incidentally, it's good that we did get it all checked as we had about a cupful of oil in the engine and so had we run the engine for long it could have been very bad. Phil has now poured gallons of oil in and so we're all safe to run it every couple of weeks like you're supposed to. We may even take it out on a calm day in the summer if we're feeling brave...

freezer jolly good fellow

Well, thanks to the help of Lorna's brother Phil we managed in abut 10 minutes what the pathetic fridge delivery men didn't believe was possible, and got the giganto-fridge down the stairs sagely and in one piece. In the picture above you can see the original, blown-up fridge in the middle, the little stand in fridge from the captain's cabin nestling down in the bottom corner, and the new fridge towering proudly over everything on the right.