Red Belly

A quick picture of some of the boys down under the barge painting red anti-foul paint onto Cambria's belly. It's a bit of a confined space but the 65 tonnes of barge are well supported by the massive steel 'wedding cake tier supports' and huge baulks of timber. The barge's bottom is about 85 feet long and 23 feet wide, so takes some time to get a good coat on.

Meanwhile, Dad finishes his weekend cover and is happy to 'hand the operation back to the operators'. He's now off call and can ignore the works mobile. That might be the last time he ever does a weekend cover, what with Project Erroll an' all.

Both humans remembered that it was Valentine's Day and did the necessary with cards and so on. I don't get one, as nobody loves me. Dad is then intrigued to get one in the post, posted in Kent and purporting to be from (2 different hand writings) "Secret Admirer #1" and "Secret Admirer #2". He has his suspicions as the note mentions 'keelsons' which are the inner keel of a sailing barge. Hmmmm

We love a mystery (Wasn't me guv')

Deefs

Back in the Water Soon

With the hull nearly complete and the crew well through the painting job on Sailing Barge Cambria, the talk is turning to the refloat date. Back in the water for the first time in 17 years! The plan at the moment is dependent upon high Spring Tides which are due to peak on or around the full moons of Feb 21st and March 21st. The Feb ones will be used to move Cambria and her lighter / drydock to a deeper part of the Creek, where the tides have naturally scoured out the mud.

There will then be a mad month of preparation to finish making her top-sides rain proof and removing the 3-year-long cocoon of polytunnel, prior to an attempt to float her out over the back lip of the drydock on 21st March. Everyone points out, though that these 'high tides' are notoriously unpredictable and depend heavily on what storm events are going on in the North Sea and sending extra water up the Swale and then up Faversham Creek. It's going to be a tense month for the team.

Meanwhile we've had a nice relaxing weekend and some good walks. With the barge-painting job almost finished, Dad can spend fewer hours down there in his overalls and more time with us. He has even taken us one walk via the allotments; this almost as part of psyching himself up to return up there after 3 months when he's been unable to turn a spade-full because it's either been soggy wet, snowy or frozen solid. Now though it's warning and drying and things are starting to move. In our own garden we have a fine show of snow drops now, plenty of daffs poking through the ground and some buds expanding on shrubs and trees.

On the social side we had a lovely dinner yesterday with Diamond, John and (unfortunately) Rags-the-ASBO who I still do not love like I have been told I should. I am a constant source of despair to Mum and Dad as I sit up high on easy chairs curling my lip at him as he ambles about in a restless but unconcerned manner. Dogs! they say. Who'd have them?

Tomorrow spare a thought for Mum and Dad (and the Pud Lady) as the troops head for Hastings and Stamp Man's funeral.

Look after yourselves

Deefski

Painting the Barge

Just in case Dad ever tries to get out of the decorating by pleading that he doesn't like painting and is off to work on the barge instead, look at this little lot! With the hull of the famous sailing barge Cambria now almost complete, the volunteers have turned their attentions away from the PR duties of showing the public round the old girl, to slapping 7 coats of various paints onto the hull - all 91 feet long by 7 feet tall by 23 feet across-the-bottom of her.

A gang of 4-6 volunteers can do one coat in 2 sessions. The paint is applied using those narrow (4 inch?) rollers on the longer (2 foot?) handles, this being Master Shipwright Tim Goldsack's instructed method of choice to waste less paint and give a good finish. The undercoats alternate between 2 shades - both do the same job but it's easier to see where you've been if you don't use the same colour, so we the guys swap between a flat 'battleship grey' and what Dulux might have called a 'grey-with-a-hint-of-pink' which has now become fixed in the volunteers' heads as 'Rosy Glow'. Today there are a crowd of 6 of them down at the barge, which is enough to do one side and most of the bottom in a couple of hours.

Then Dad's back up here and tidying in the garden, picking up the rest of the hedge clippings remaining from 2CV Llew's trimming, chain-saw activities and raking up Paulownia leaves to reveal the fresh yellow-green points of snowdrops just emerging from the soil under the apple trees.

We get a nice walk through Cemetery and Rec, where a whole gang of us meet up by chance for the humans to chat while we mill about - 4 red and white Springers (DK, LB, Pip and Alfie), a German Shepherd (Bazz), 2 Jack Russells (Patch and a red and white we don't know the name of) and of course Haggis and I. Doggie chaos!

Deefs