Dear Body……

I ache…! 

After two winters the garden shed is a mess and is in need of some TLC.  The big task today was to remove all the additional “stuff” from the ‘engine hole’ and make a start on removing all the deep red growth from the swim and baseplate. The starboard side is the worst affected because that’s the side where the anti-freeze leaked onto the bilge paint when the calorifier was commissioned.  I hadn’t realised anti-freeze would have such and adverse affect on paint.  It has blistered and crumbled to dust.  Then during my absence over winter the bare mental had rusted.

My strategy is to fix the starboard side first attacking the worst of it whilst my enthusiasm is high. Then refurbish the port side. This morning it took plenty of elbow grease and a wire brush to remove most of the loose paint and rust. The area was then cleaned and prepared before applying the first coat of white Hammerite.  The area will get a second coat tomorrow morning.

I’ve discovered I’m not related to Harry Houdini.  My brain tells my body that it can twist and contort to reach those awkward spots but my body refuses to respond.  The brain keeps saying “You could do this 40 years ago!”  But the body screams “Not now!”  Not only can I now no longer touch my toes…. I can’t even see them!  There is a large object between my chest and waist.  However I can stand, so I obvious still have toes.  The job would probably be far easier if the big green noisy thing wasn’t sitting in the middle of the shed.  But we need it so I’ve been forced to work around the damned thing.  I got clever with the more ‘out of reach’ areas and taped the paintbrush to the end of the old mop handle.  However it didn’t go all my way because on of the side effects of waving my light sabre around in a confined space has resulted in me managing to apply paint to more than the boat.  I can see that the next several weeks I’ll be picking Hammerite out of creases I didn’t know I had.

Jan wasn’t that pleased about me using the vacuum cleaner to remove all the paint chips and rust particles from the engine compartment baseplate.  But frankly there was no way I was going to be able to bend over the engine and sweep it up with a hearth brush and dust pan.  Jan then took pity on me after I’d finished with it and took the hoover away to clean the filters.

To break the routine and minimise the potential for repetitive strain injury, I washed Waiouru’s roof and starboard side midway through the engine compartment job.  It’s going to need a second wash before I start applying polish.  I also noticed the chrome mushroom vents and fairleads are tarnished.  Hopefully the polish will remove that.

The “to do” list is actually getting longer rather than shorter.  Jan and I had a ‘boaters meeting’ and decided that we need to make time to start at one end of the boat and work through to the other noting all the tasks that need to be completed.

After two years, the original long handled broom we use to sweep the roof of Waiouru has seriously rusted.  We’ve found a replacement at the 99p shop.  So mother will now be able to fly over to visit (but at 99p it will be Ryanair equivalent).

I’m not looking forward to painting the second coat tomorrow morning……..  And then there is the port side to do!

Ending on a positive note.  I’m halfway though Jan’s delicious cherry cake and the last of the large pork pie has gone down my elementary canal.  I’ve been very good and have yet to indulge in alcohol.  But don’t get between me and the bar at Sunday lunch tomorrow!