23. With Rosie

See, that's Captn Eve on Rosie enjoying the delightful weather on Loch Lochy. I think it's Loch Lochy. We'll pretend it is anyway since we sailed a lot on it. Loch Oich has too narrow a channel for proper sailing and the canal bits between them too - although we did try a little Dylan Winter noodling with the geona oop [a little unsuccessfully I might add].

Rosie is a YCA29 - simple but functional and sails ok really. Felt great when the sun shone anyway.

But it wasn't all sunshine. The snow came in too - great waves of the stuff that reduced visibility to to to, not very much and sent us scuttling back into Laggan Locks on the last day of our time there and the confines of an ever so slightly warmer cabin - and later the Eagle Barge Pub. The pub is excellent, has nice beers, good food, lovely staff and, is warm.

We really liked the trip. The sailing was nice, the place magnificent and we got to meet Charles Menzies, shipright and take coffee with him on his wonderful Junk Kung-fu-Tse. How good was that? Very since you ask.

22. The time we left Freyja at home

Yes well. Snow outside, cold inside. But great fun :-)

Caledonian Canal April 2015 - YCA 29 - Rosie

21. sunshine; the boatees get to work

The sunshine brought Her Highness Hentrietta Cartier-Bresson out for a look see.The Wee boatee is her favourite climbing frame so she is not keen to see the painting being done.

Nice colour eh? Dunstan blue we call it. A mixture of two tins of foul paint we had. Can't waste now can we?

And while we were hard at work, the neighbours were having their roof tickled back to life.

Stornoway was lovely today - Gerald painting Ammonite, Trevor anti-fouling Iron Bark, James painting Jubilee and some erb putting in a new hatch for Mr Stephen and El Vigo. Lovely to see everyone so active out there. Can't wait to get out our wee boatee back in the water!

And don't forget Sail Stornoway this year. 13-18th July while the Hebridean Music Festival is on. Mark the web-site and get back to it soon for more details. And, yes there's more, the Stornoway Skiff Regatta May 29th & 30th.

20. Not much more progress

Well, it's got a tad warmer and dryer and thoughts of sailing return. A trip to the Sail Stornoway meeting the other evening kindled the feeling as well. Seems to be a lot going on this year what with the Port Authority 150 years celebrations and, the umpteenth running of the Coronation Sailing Cup - started in 1902. Might even have a go at that - if the weather is right, the sea not too wet and everything. And not forgetting the rowing club events either. We might just tag along when they gad off over to Portsoy and their festival in July.

The boatee is coming along nicely. I seem to have sealed the windows from rainwater - hopefully anyway. If so I'll put off replacing them if I can. The steering stick is joined up and just needs a final bolt to double secure it. The bilge keels have been primed and await the foul paint later. When we get back from a wee sailing trip on the Caledonian Canal sort of later.

In the meantime I took a little stroll round the terrible harbour that is Brevig  Several fishing boats risk the place and there's a few sad looking yachts up on the hard. I snapped them up with my little film camera, developed the film and now wonder what they are!

And the fishing.....

19. Progress

Dinghy transom painted

Bilge keel seams sealed
Bilge keels primed
Windows tested for leaks - they failed. At least we know where leaks are!
Anchor chain hole capped to stop ingress of water.
Anchor rope and chain found new home where the portaloo used to sit.

The Anchor chain has now been rescued from the harbour in Stornoway. We braved the force 5 breezes, took the dinghy round the corner from Cuddy Point so the wind would be blowing us the right way, waded through the slimy horrible mud and set off.

We got the anchor up and untangled from the mooring chain in the end - luckily twas a very low tide - then drifted and rowed, well Eve did anyway, back to Cuddy slipway where I then proceeded to slip on the weed and the like. I'm alright apart from a sore back and pride!

18. Yep, I've started so I will finish. Soon.

I can hear you all Tut-tutting from here. Yes, it is a bit better than it was before. No, the power washing did little good and yes all the 'stuff' I'm using to do this work smells horrible so it must be good.

The iron keels were wire brushed - by hand and later with a drill attachment that threw clouds of dust everywhere. Took off all the loose bits, the rust and what have you - although the rust was back in the morn! Never mind I did then coat the things with Rust Converter stuff that made the rusty bits go black. It feels like it should be better anyway. Perhaps I'll use some Gel coat paste to fill in the bumpy bits before I prime the things. I know, I know, it not how it should be done - but I am doing it this way anyway.

Since we have had an unprecedented three days warm sunshine, the wood is not dripping wet so I sloshed some water based sealant on it and that looked better straight way - if you ignored the damaged bit and the flakes of something else falling off. If you squint a bit and view it from a distance in the shade, it looks quite / almost passable.

But the piece of resistance or what ever one says, was the commencement of the gel coat repair that was required at the pointy end. At least it stuck on and when it's sanded back and covered in anti foul paint it will look ok - especially since it'll be in the water!

17. Sunshine at last

It seems that sunshine has arrived for the first time this year. The horizontal rain has abated as have the strong winds. The breezes are still a tad cool but it didn't stop us getting to work on the wee boatee today.

We borrowed a power washer and gave her bottom a good wash - even though I must admit it doesn't look any better than before. Scrubbed and started to wire brush the keels too that are going to require a bit of tlc. We have some Coor var rust converter to use then a coat or two of Primer before the anti fouling.

The wood is a bit tatty too but I have started to smooth that off and give a coat of water based wood sealer that I'm told works well.

The little housey bit has been emptied out, cleaned and dried in the sunshine. The mainsail was washed and dried - drying in the Summer Parlour as I type. The Genoa has already had that treatment. All in all a good days work.

Bring on the sailing days!