On Friday, we decided
to take advantage of the improved weather, and do some of the
necessary remedial work on Kantara's paintwork. Under white cloud,
and in a total lack of wind, we left the marina (where any extensive
painting is disallowed) and moored just a five minute walk up the
canal, at a spot where there was a bank low enough for us to have
easy access to the rubbing strake which was most in need of painting.
This raised strip runs along both sides of a narrow boat, and
protects the hull from the inevitable bumps and scuffs along
moorings, lock and bridge entrances and so on.
Working in dry, mild
weather, we rubbed down the rubbing strake and the various chips
along the side panel above it, painted the strake with one-coat hull
blacking, and primed the other areas with Red Oxide paint. It was
hard work, and took hours. We went to bed tired!
That was the starboard
side done, but now we needed to get to the port side. So on Sunday
morning, misty and promising, we headed up to the nearest winding
hole about three miles away, turned and came back to an ideal spot
just north of bridge 27, where others had moored with the same idea
in mind. The bank was very low, and we completed the day's work on
the port side of the boat.
We were still working
as the sun went down, and I missed taking photographs of the amazing
light on the autumnal trees opposite the sunset, and the misty
spectacle of the sky in the west. I did, however, get some good shots
of our latest mooring spot, taken this morning as the mists started
to clear.
Rising early this
morning, we applied undercoat to the spots where we had primed the
port side, and Grace did some preliminary rust spot treatment to the
boat's name on that side. The paints dried quickly, and we left to
return to the marina. The weather, which had been sunny and mild to
start with, deteriorated as we neared Yelvertoft, and, by the time we
had berthed, there was a cold, biting wind.
The remaining work on
the sides of Kantara can now be done in the spring. The paintwork is
winter-proofed, although far from pretty!
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