The recent fabulously sunny weather was nowhere to be seen as clouds descended and surrounded us menacingly on the day we were brought out of the water, Sunday 3rd March, by an amazing team of volunteers. Unfortunately the next seven days entailed quite a bit of dodging showers and high wind to get as much done as we possibly could in the time we had on land.
Heading into Stafford Boat Club 
Lining up the bow 
Sliding in expertly 
Off the boat while she’s winched out
And she’s out! 
Barry water blasting before the 1.30pm curfew
Once out of the water, Barry had until 1.30pm to water blast the hull before it was turned off. A cold and wet experience that sadly (!) only one person could handle.
Much furious grinding then took place, aided by an electric hook-up (oh my goodness, I can’t begin to tell you what a luxury that is!), ready for the first coat of sticky black bitumen-type paint. It’s hard graft doing this on a 60 foot hull – not once, but thrice.
It turned out to be a case of checking weather forecasts many times daily, realising that half the time they were wrong. Then doing our best to dodge in and out of the rain and wind hoping for the best.
Although there are covers provided, sadly they’re not able to keep the whole boat underneath.
Fortunately there were sufficient windows of opportunity to get three coats on by Thursday. And a bit of other much needed touch-up work. Not as much as Barry would’ve liked, but still a great achievement.
Stafford Boat Club is rather special. Everyone is extremely friendly and helpful – not to forget their outstanding, high quality members bar. We managed to find our way there on Friday and Saturday night (more about a wonderful surprise there in the next post – as well as a couple of gorgeous guests on board one evening).
The painting team – one very part time member! 
Looking shiny! 
Not very covered sadly 
Doing a brilliant job Barry
Back in the water
Time to return to the water 
With a shiny black botton 
Down she goes again 
Almost there …
As you can see by the following Sunday it was absolutely freezing! A car arrived at the boatyard that morning with a covering of snow from nearby Penkridge. We’d had to rely on our diesel radiators while out of the water, as the front of the boat was under the cover, so we weren’t able to light the fire.
We’re now snug and warm on board listening to the howling wind outside. Hopefully Barry will get to finish painting the back deck at some stage this year – he started last summer 😉
So – are you still able to stay on board while on ‘dry’ land? That must be weird!
Yes we stay in the boat. It’s very still lol 😂 (pun intended!)