Scraping Greta's bottom

In the process of losing his mind, Dad gets chatting to the owner/skipper of SB Greta and volunteers to help scraping barnacles off her nether regions. He's at it for 3 hours this morning and comes back aching all over. The barge, in dry dock, is up on blocks only waist height to Dad, so he's working in a space where no-one can stand. There's a lot of kneeling, twisting, reaching and using unaccustomed muscles.

The wee beasties are scraped off first with a garden hoe, then for more detailed attention, with a little triangular paint scraper. Steve (owner/skipper) then follows on with the big industrial jet-wash. This all prior to the old girl getting new anti-fouling paint (which Steve jokes is a complete waste of time because as soon as she sits down on the mud again at low tide all the paint gets squidged off).

And here, as promised, the old transom (flat stern) of the SB Oak, looking like the guys in this container yard are actually looking to preserve the relic, rather than letting it moulder in the hedge along with the bits of her bottom.

It's all bottoms today

Deefer.

Tosca

With Dad still using up spare holiday days, we are getting some nice fuss and Quality Time, plus some good walks. Today's for example, in bright sunshine but a bitter wind all down through the boat yard and back through town and the Rec where we met superb brown and grey Spinone "Tosca" whom we have mentioned before. This time she seemed at first to be all on her own and mooching round the trees, very happy to see us, but eventually we saw her owner several hundred yards off chatting. Tosca had obviously gone for an explore.

The walk down through the boatyard turned out to be interesting from a barge-ish view point, when Dad spotted that what had seemed to be a pile of old wooden bits in a hedge, had an oddly familiar structure - like a short section of the bottom and sides of a flat bottomed boat? All the elements were there that Dad now knows from Cambria - chine-keelson, chine, frames, planking etc. Dad decided to ask in the local Chandlery and they guy thought it might be the remains of Sailing Barge "Oak" and could also remember seeing a chunk of transom (flat stern) sticking out of some brambles. This proved to be the case, so we doubled back on ourselves for Dad to take some pics (see future posts)

We also called by the Cambria where Dad stopped to chat to Cambria's Master shipwright, Tim, and to owner/skipper of SB Greta, Steve and , mad fool that he obviously is, volunteered to help tomorrow to scrape barnacles off the dry-docked Greta. Greater love hath no man.

Meanwhile Diamond is indeed home but exhausted and aching from some of the heavy duty medication. Take it easy Diamond, preserve your strength.

Deefski