Bits and bobs

Oh dear, life is running away with me again, and my poor blog is suffering...well, it probably isn't, that's just me talking nonsense. The thing is, it's really hard to keep track of what's going on at the moment, so let me just list a few things.

Firstly, I am almost ready to move back on to the Vereeniging. That's a big plus, although now I am down in Zeeland for a week, so the proper move will have to wait until I go back.

Secondly, those of you who have seen my Facebook status will know that my holiday plans were severely interrupted by some mindless, drunken idiot sticking his boot through my windscreen, costing me days of my break, not to mention a few hundred euros in repairs that I can ill afford right now. Something of a minus here, I think you'll agree.

Then, we are still really busy with the Hennie Haha, which I now call it since this little boat seems determined to have the last laugh on us. Anyhow, the decks are all scaled now and today I went over them with a rotary steel brush attached to an angle grinder (how I love power tools!) and managed to wear the brush down to nothing in the process...haha...see? Still, they look good and are pretty much ready to be painted as soon as the rain decides to stop..one more plus.

Another plus is the amazing photography Koos has been doing at the shipyard. I call it container art. If you haven't seen his latest photos, just do yourselves a favour and go to his Flickr page. The pictures he's publishing of images he sees on the old containers in the yard are just fantastic.

The final plus is that hopefully I'll have some time to write in the next week, and that I'm really looking forward to, so let's see now - on balance, there are more plusses aren't there? All I need now is some sunshine to brighten up my spirits!

I'll leave you with a photo of the Vereeniging's new sofa uncovered here to contrast with my beautiful Sindy. After taking the pic, I bought a couple of throws to protect it from my very black dog.



There's also a neat movie that Koos made here with music by the wonderful Kate and Anna McGarrigle

What one does on one's holiday....

....if one is foolish enough to own a very old boat; even worse if one decides with one's other half to share another even older boat that needs even more fixing up.

The photos below are of the foredeck of the Hennie Ha which I have spent the weekend needle scaling to get all the old paint off. Last weekend I did the the gangboord on the starboard side, and I guess next week, I'll be doing the same thing on the port side. A needle scaler, for those of you who haven't heard of them, is run on compressed air and is a 'gun' stacked full of steel needles which vibrate like crazy when the machine is in operation. It does a brilliant job of knocking off anything that can come free of the steel, and is a super speedy paint stripper.


One needle scaled gangboord


Portion of foredeck I did today.

The famous needle scaler, without which none of this would be possible.

The poor little boat looks a mess at the moment as we strip, sand and scale, but at least when it's painted again, the paint will stay on and not need doing again for a year or two.

I would have gone on today, but rain stopped play. We are having a week of really horrid weather. I do hope it cheers up soon, or August won't have been a good month for my holiday. I'm off back to Rotterdam tomorrow to do some more on the Vereeniging...yes, I know, I know but that's what having old boats is all about.

Hope you are all enjoying your August.

Too much to tell so just a little taster

Life has been rather busy recently. There's far too much for just one post and as I'm more than a bit tired right now, I'll settle for just a photo of the Vereeniging back in its place next to the Luxor and some pics of the nearly finished re-vamp of the interior.

I still have to find some suitable furniture, namely a sofa and a table for eating/sitting at and last but not least, all my personal belongings. I did have furnishings in it before, of course, but they have all found comfortable corners in the little house, so I'm loath to move them all again. In fact I'm planning to make a sofa and a table as my requirements are rather specific. More on that later. For now, see my newly painted but rather empty home!












By the way, you might have noticed my blog has its old name back again.