Inspired by the good weather, I set off for the boat yesterday morning with my painting kit, and set about sorting the mess in the lazerette (rearmost locker, behind the cockpit) by the new deck drain outflow pipes. There used to be a Heath-Robinson GRP box in the bottom of the locker, which had been removed, leaving a bit of a mess.
Anyway, the results were most gratifying, it looked better immediately, and dried in no time. I used white Danboline, and solved the problem of access by painting the roller with a brush, then using the roller's long handle to get into the most inaccessible places. Fun! I've put the 'before' photo on yesterday's blog entry, and the 'after' on today's, so you can see what I mean!
We plan to head off for Lochaline tomorrow, for the Rival Owners' Association summer muster and barbecue, after the yeard have fitted our new Windex. (The arrow flew off the last one as we rounded Cape St Vincent in 2010 on the boat's journey home.)
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Yesterday was such a good day here that we decided to take Little Else out for her shakedown cruise, before the Rival Owners Association muster in Lochaline next weekend. We sailed her down Loch Craignish in a gentle southerly wind, a little flukey at times. We went as far as Crinan, turned round, and put up the cruising chute, its first outing for some years now! Apart from putting it up the wrong way round (tack for clew, I'm ashamed to say!) it was a successful experiment in trying to remember how it works! It was a bit blanked by the main on the return trip, but generally it was a good three hours aboard the boat, mostly without the engine, for once! The newly-painted deck looks great, and we are mostly happy with the new deck drains.
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After two months either out of the water or tied to a pontoon while various bits of minor surgery were carried out on her, Little Else is now back on her home mooring. We moved her yesterday once we were sure all our new plumbing was working. One unforeseen issue was having to replace our manual bilge pump, which was extremely corroded and well past its use-by date. It's amazing it was working at all last season.
Ju and I took advantage of the opportunity while on the pontoon in good weather to paint most of the deck. One-third of it remains to be painted, so we need to get that done sooner rather than later.
The boat is now almost ready for the new season!
This is a painting in water colours that Abby did for us last year of the moorings in Loch Craignish, seen from the top of the hill at Learagoligan. It has pride of place on our living-room wall.
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