From the bottom to the top

Last week, I gave you all chapter and verse about our two weeks on the slipway, but that wasn't the end of the jobs. Back home at our mooring, it was time to get started on the upper parts of Vereeniging that had also seen some serious weathering.

There are a lot of colours to deal with on my old girl: two shades of green, red for the edges, cream for the hatch covers and black for the rubbing rail and the rim along the top of the hull. Then there's the anthracite anti-slip grey paint for the decks. Which is a lot!

Luckily, I have a daughter who loves the barge very much too, so we've both spent time sanding and painting the trim around the top of the engine room and aft cabin (known here as the roef). Then, when I've had to go off to work, she's been over at the crack of dawn (literally) to carry on, bless her. As a result, much more has been completed than I could ever have hoped and I'm once again incredibly grateful for her assistance. It helps that Vereeniging is moored in a wonderfully peaceful and picturesque place, of course. And early mornings are exceptionally lovely, but even still, she's been a rock.

However, the first job was to paint the roef a fresh coat of olive green, and I love how the old iron gleams with every dent and ripple in its 127-year-old structure telling of her hard-working history.

Then came the fiddly stuff for which Jo was such a huge help. The red trim was in a sorry state with flaking paint and rust coming through. The pair of us scraped and sanded and then put rust converter on the bad patches, followed by primer. Only when that was all dry could it be painted red again.

Since Jo completed the job, she was justly proud of her efforts and took these photos to show the finished trim. But there's still more to do.  The windows need scraping and painting, as do the hatches, and then come the decks. We have yet to fix the steering properly and finish some other jobs too, but then the old girl should be fit to fare, as well as proud to parade through cities like Ghent. And we still have that trip to France on the cards...

Meanwhile, I'm leaving Vereeniging in Jo's caring hands when we head off to France by car next week. There may be lots to do, but the summer is not over yet and we're definitely hoping for some faring fun later on. 

Have a great week allemaal! Next time I'm 'here', I'll probably be posting from Koos's railway cottage!