Sunday 12th June 2011 Péronnes. Last coat of blacking, only the colours and antifouling to do!

Cold night, sunny spells with grey clouds. Up bright and early. Mike made a start by sanding down the filler he put round the D irons on the stern then he painted the weed hatch. He decided to put a spot of weld in a depression in the steel by the exhaust pipe so I had to watch for signs of the paint on the inside setting on fire (it didn’t!). The neighbours chalked out their water line ready for painting their antifouling. Anne made us a cuppa, then we painted our hull, third and final coat of vinyl tar. Anne did a second coat of creosote on our fenders before helping Olly paint their first coat of antifouling. Paused for coffee and sandwiches. Mike went in the cabin to fix the power supply for the fridge (a bad connection on the current limiter, he thought.) I did the first coat of paint on the colours round the stern, then a coat of black on the plate for the weed hatch. Tidied up and went back on board. Helped lift the welder back on board. Mike watched the Canadian F1 GP, racing in the wet. 

Saturday 11th June 2011 Péronnes. Rain but work goes on

Cold night, grey clouds and a few spots of rain every now and then. Mike had promised to take Anne to get some shopping and a top-up for their phone and he posted birthday cards. I got on with the chores. It was gone 11.00 a.m. when they returned. Mike made a start on the weed hatch and I made lunch. After lunch I helped Mike chisel the rest off the paint off the stern with the aid of the gas torch by putting out the flaming pieces of paint. Anne’s friend Bernadette who lives in Péronnes came to visit. Anne volunteered to do jobs. Too grey to paint, it looked like it would pour down (but didn’t) so he said she could paint our fenders with creosote. I collected up all the power tools and took them back on board then started on my ironing. Mike needed the mains cable to do the last bits of welding on Snail so I had no power supply for the ironing. I tidied up the front deck. Anne shouted us to have a drink so we sat out and chatted. Mike had a look at our fridge’s 240V power supply which was playing up.  

Friday 10th June 2011 Péronnes. Rain stopped play again.

Hazy cloud, light breeze. More grey damp weather so no painting, etc.

Thursday 9th June 2011 Péronnes. Work, work and more work. BBQ

Sunny. Grey clouds threatened rain. Mike decided to strip the paint off the coloured bands around the stern. Helped him get the spare gas bottle down to ground level and found the gas blowlamp out. He hadn’t been doing it for long when I had the call to be fire-watcher as he’d already set a large patch of dry grass on fire with burning paint. I took my plant mister spray down with me and dampened the grass then sprayed each strip of burning paint as it landed. It needed body filler in the gaps under the D-irons in places, mainly right at the middle of the stern and, as he’d used most of the last container filling the underneath sections of the D-irons around the bows, he had to go and get more from the DIY in Antoing. Anne sent cups of tea down so after a chat with Olly I went and sat with them and their friend Dick, who lives on his Dutch sailing barge near Namur, who’d come to lend a hand. When Mike returned he drank his tea and did a bit more work on the stern. When we finished work we had a BBQ and sat out chatting, drinking and eating until 12.30 a.m. The sky clouded over but we didn’t have any rain. 

Wednesday 8th June 2011 Péronnes. No rain – back to work!

Sunny with white clouds. Painted a second coat on the starboard side before lunch – Anne made us lunch as we were all working. Olly was going over the starboard side with a wire brush on Snail as it had rained on it since he last did it. After lunch we painted a second coat on the port side and Olly started his first coat on Snail’s starboard side. Finished just after 3.30 p.m. and we went in for a wash and change and slept, exhausted.

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Péronnes. More rain - shopping.

Grey and overcast with 90% chance of rain according to the weather machine. Took Anne with us to do some shopping in Tournai and visited the Delhaize hypermarket, which Anne had told us was the Belgian equivalent of British Waitrose supermarkets. She was right, it was a bit pricey but the fruit and veg looked good. Back by midday. I packed all the stuff away and made sandwiches with a lovely crusty seedy baguette (1,75€ - ouch) for lunch.

Monday 6th June 2011 Péronnes. Rain, but work goes on.

Thunderstorms, grey and overcast. Heavy downpours of rain. Mike bought a Belgian PAYG SIM for our phone. Anne and Olly’s parcel from the WiFi shop arrived. After lunch both Mike and I had a nap. Heavy rain woke me and I closed the canvases to keep the front deck from getting any wetter than it already was (which was pretty damp) and promptly went back to sleep. Next thing I knew Mike was asking for assistance as he was putting new bearing shells at the bottom of the rudder shaft and needed me to lift it from on the counter while he pushed wedges in below so he could put the bearings in place. No peace!

Sunday 5th June 2011 Péronnes. A day off!

Thunderstorms and heavy rain stopped play. 

Saturday 4th June 2011 Péronnes. Helen came to visit.

Boatyard crane rail crossing, moveable points.

Hot and sunny. Snail’s engine started up at 8.30 a.m. and they ran it for an hour for heating water. Mike took Anne with him (she’d got a large pile of empty bottles to take to the big booze shop and wanted to replenish their stocks of beer and wine) to collect Helen from the station in Antoing. I tidied up and made a start on catching up on the log, which hadn’t been done since Wednesday. Helen arrived and came up the ladder on to the boat. I made a coffee and we had a good old catch up. She said they were flying to Scotland for her nephew Ben’s wedding at a Catholic church in Edinburgh, then they would do a bit of exploring in Scotland as her brother doesn’t mind driving so they thought they might go and see the Falkirk Wheel. Mike told her to take a boat trip up the lift, through the tunnel and back as it was well worth doing. I made sandwiches for lunch and we carried on chatting. She went to have a chat with Olly who was still slogging away down the starboard side of Snail as she’d already had a good natter with Anne in the car, and then Mike took her to catch her train in Antoing back to Gent. When he returned he said we’d better finish the painting before the weather breaks and we got into our old clothes and painted the port side. It was 7.30 p.m. when we finished. Got washed and changed and turned the chicken and pork I’d defrosted into kebabs and Mike lit our Hibachi. Anne did some steaks. We’d just finished eating when it started raining and it bucketed down. Mike went up and closed the side doors but didn’t bring a brolly down so we got soaked to the skin in minutes just loading the tray up to take up the ladder! Mike asked Anne and Olly on board for a drink and we sat chatting until 12.30 a.m. At least it had stopped raining for them to take Woody for a stroll before bedtime.

Friday 3rd June 2011 Péronnes. More work on the dry dock.

Hot and sunny. More of the same. Mike re-welded the loop he had added to the bows as Olly had spotted it and noticed the welding wasn’t up to Mike’s usual standard! Francis came with the injectors he’d tested and refurbished. I finished brushing the port side and Mike quickly caught up as above waterline was much easier to do. (No it isn’t. Ed). Anne made us lunch. After lunch we painted the starboard side and were going to keep going and do the port side too but we were both so tired we were tripping over matchsticks so we gave up. Anne, true to her word had donned her “Chernobyl” suit, breathing  mask and goggles and scraped the last of the stinky mussels off the bottom of the boat – she also volunteered to paint the bottom with a roller, much to our surprise. She invited us round to dinner, roast pork. We had a lovely meal. Anne and Olly's friend Paul arrived. There was an accordion concert on in Tournai which both Anne and Olly really wanted to go and see as it only occurs every few years and is funny, but both were too tired although Paul said he would take them and bring them back and we said they should go as could go back to our boat. Paul went after making arrangements for more practise next day and us promising to go to see the concert at the Maison Romaine in Tournai on Sunday afternoon. Back home just after ten. 

Thursday 2nd June 2011 Péronnes. My birthday – definitely not my favourite one!

Warm and sunny. Mike had left Olly to dress yesterday’s welds after fixing the last of the fuel tank leaks but he went too deep and it was leaking again so he had to re-weld that then there were more welding jobs to do on our boat. He added a loop underneath the bow fender to try and pull it down into shape. Once I got the power back, I carried on wire-brushing round the bows and down the port side. Anne wanted a job to do so volunteered to get the rest of the mussels off the bottom of our boat. They had mussels down the sides of theirs but none underneath. Olly started brushing the sides on Snail. By late afternoon we were getting very tired. I was more than half way down the port side. We washed and changed and both went to sleep. Lit the BBQs and sat out chatting until late, listening for bats using Olly’s bat detector and watching for satellites. 

Wednesday 1st June 2011 Péronnes. Working on the dry dock.

Sunny and hot. Old clothes on and out to start work on the rubbing down – except we hadn’t got any wire brushes. Mike thought we had, but couldn’t find any (found them after we’d nearly finished – they were in the box with the electric drills!). He went to get some from the Brico in Tournai. I got on with the usual chores and defrosted the ‘fridge. I managed to get all the food back in the ‘fridge just before he returned. Made a start on the wire-brushing, Mike doing the gunwales to waterline and I did below waterline. He did all around the back then went to investigate the leaky fuel tank in Snail’s bows. He and Olly decided to take off part of the top of the rubbing band around the bows and find the leak, which was behind it, as their tank is situated on their boat in the place where we have our gas locker - right in the point of the bow. After lunch Mike carried on working on Snail’s bow with Olly, pressure testing it and continuing to find more leaks. I carried on with the cleaning off. I finished around 5.30 p.m. as I’d done to the end of the trolley. Mike and Olly carried on working, finding the holes in the edge of Snail’s fuel tank.