All decked out

 This summer, if I can even call it that, has possibly been the wettest, coolest and least helpful to a boat owner such as myself that I can remember in all the years I've lived in the Netherlands. I keep reading reports about July having been the hottest on record. Well, it may have been in some parts of the world, but definitely not here. In fact, as I see it, summer has given us a miss this year.

As a result, work on both the Vereeniging and the Hennie H has been a matter of hurling paint onto whatever surfaces I could prepare quickly between the storms and downpours. And then keeping my fingers firmly crossed that the paint will have time to dry enough before the next deluge.

In between, of course, I've had my 'wholly hole project' (aka my cupboard building exercise—see last week's post) and now I've finished one, I've started on the next one. It makes good wet weather entertainment, that's for sure, and stops me getting cabin fever.

Here's a photo of my new hole.

As for the title of this post, I did, with the sterling help of my wonderful daughter, manage to scrape and paint my Vereeniging's foredeck this last week.

If I say this is always a big job regardless of the weather, you'll understand that to do the whole thing in two days is, for us, nothing short of miraculous. It's also difficult because it is the only access point to the barge, so I did one third of it on the port side on Wednesday. Then my daughter came over early yesterday morning and we did the rest of the washing down, scraping sanding, and painting by 3 o'clock. A marathon effort, after which we were, as I've said, totally decked out. So thanks Jo!! 

Doesn't she look smart?

I have now scooted back to Zeeland and am praying last night's rain hasn't damaged the new paint. It's best if I leave it a few days before walking over it again anyway, so I'll have to contain my impatience until sometime midweek when I'll go back again to inspect the situation.

As for the Hennie H, my hole is really the least of the projects going on there. Koos is doing magnificent things in the engine room and with luck (and maybe a bit of good weather ... please) it will all be ready for the inspector to come back and check it again very soon. The best thing is that we've heard the new engine running, and it sounds great: sweet, rumbly and very much alive.

Keep everything crossed for us allemaal. Who knows? We might get a couple of away days on board yet!