Gunwales and no Bull

Well it looked like painting weather when we woke this morning.  But first there was the weekly phone call back to Perth, Western Australia.  I must be getting rather inventive managing to talk for an hour about not much!

Next on the agenda was the port gunwale.  The first job was to wipe it down to remove all the water and allow the steel to dry.  While this was happening I extracted the 240v extension cord from the base of the wet locker.  Jan then fed it out through the bedroom porthole.  Our new electric orbital sander was retrieved from the storage locker and the gunwale was then sanded down with 240 grit paper.

The sander certainly makes this easier and does a better job than I could by hand.

Bill will be pleased to read that I added Owatol to the paint and immediately noticed the difference. It didn’t feel as thick and flowed better.  Darren, the original painter, had told me the paint should be “laid off” vertically in a downwards motion with a light touch.  I’d completed 75% of the gunwale when Jan suggested the vertical motion was leaving vertical brush marks in the finished surface and that the final brush strokes should be horizontal.  So the last 25% of the painting was done horizontally.

Can you see the vertical brush marks?  Neither can I!

The section immediately below the cratch will have to be redone as some water has “clouded” the finish.

My idea was to leave the paint to dry in the afternoon and carry on with some other tasks.  However as it was Sunday Jan suggested we should be looking for a Sunday roast lunch.  Now I’d previously walked to “The Bull” which is the local pub at Clifton upon Dunsmore.  The meals board on the side of the pub mentioned Sunday roast lunch (beef, lamb, pork).  We walked the 1.5km to the pub but it was closed.  Actually there was a small notice in one window stating it was closed for renovation!  Jan wasn’t pleased.  We then walked in the opposite direction to “Butlers Leap Inn” which is actually closer to the boat.  It’s part of the Table Table chain and although we initially had some trepidation about the meal it proved to be very nice.  Jan had the beef and I chose the pork.  We also joined their club for discount meals as we’re likely to be using it again.  I must mention that Jan asked for a “half” of cider.  They didn’t have any cider on tap so she received it in a bottle.  All through the meal Jan was commenting about there being far more cider than usual.  After looking at the label on the bottle I told her she was mistaken.  The bottle contained 585ml which was just over half a pint.  Of course I got my imperial and metric volumes confused.  One consequence of this occurred on the way back to Waiouru when Jan said to me “Hoow bot I cut ure hare wen wee git bak too boot?”  I decided the haircut isn’t urgent!