Yard work

I found my way to Greece, my flight got in on time and I made my way to the bus station in Thessaloniki.  From there I took a six hour bus ride to Lefkas where I stayed for one night before meeting the broker in the morning to collect the keys.  I’m writing this one week later and pleased to report that things are going roughly to plan.

 
I got stuck into my list of pre-launch jobs as soon as I arrived in the boat yard. The big one was scraping the layers of biocide antifoul paint off the hull.. with a six centimetre scraper.  I planned the job carefully and bought the wonder tool that was going to make all around me envious but the Bosch chisel could'nt find the middle ground between smoothly removing old paint and gouging straight into the gelcoat.  The old school hand scraper was much better behaved though painstakingly laborious.  Here’s a clip to give you some idea:

​Four days and one allergic reaction later the job was done.  The next day was spent  sanding the hull.  Epoxy primer followed.. three coats.  The colours alternate between grey, green and back to grey again so you can see if you miss a spot.  Another exhausting day!

Today was a mixed day -I had unsatisfactory results cutting and waxing the topsides but I'll have another crack before launch.  The day ended end on a high as I finally fought free a serpentlike seacock and tube that has been resilient to every angle of attack.  After trying to clear it with quantities of phosphoric acid my neighbour Dirk came to the rescue with a massive spanner that wrenched the whole thing out.  Thanks Dirk!