April 08
April 08April 4th
Today is the 4th April and it has been a kind of watershed day. I have sold my motorcycle, a lovely Triumph ST1050 with less than a 1,000 miles on the clock and in perfect condition. Still these things will have to go if we are to sail away for more than a year and a day. My car is already sold but as luck would have it the buyer does not want it before July. Tomorrow we take Becky’s Mercedes down to a prospective buyer in Heathrow, we have cleaned and scrubbed it and it looks a picture. I am sure there will be a tear or two tomorrow if he buys it. So the assets are being stripped away at an alarming rate. And to top it all the estate agent that is to rent our house wants to bring a possible tenant around next Tuesday.
I wish the boat was moving as fast! Fox’s Yacht services in Ipswich are carrying out the work and they are lovely people. I am sure it will be a very good job at the end of it all. It is just that we are getting impatient to try her out on the water. At the moment the echo pilot sonar has gone in, the Aquadrive is being fixed. The radar arch is under construction, the SSB grounding plate is under order and the standing rigging is being built. Add to this a host of other additions like a watermaker, new radar, PC based navigation and AIS and we are beginning to wonder when we will get her round to Dartmouth. This is no criticism of Fox’s, we realise this is a busy time of year with everyone waking up for the new year on the water. Going to friends for dinner tonight.
April 5th
Great night with friends and one of them wants to buy the Mercedes and does not need it until June so even better. We have now sold both cars and both to be delivered in June 2008. After breakfast at John and Halina’s we have come home as the weather forecast is terrible for the weekend and we have decided to get on with things like the porch and the kitchen etc. We are planning now to go east to Ipswich at the end of the week.
After much thought this is the complete list of items we are putting on the boat and doing to the boat to make her ready. Henceforth her name will change from Jubilee Sovereign to Chilli Oyster, because she is an Oyster and because we like nothing better than a dozen oysters laced with freshly chopped onion and chilli. The design looks really good, I do hope the Oyster fraternity will approve.
So the job sheet:
Re-varnish floor boards (my job)
Re-do electric toilet in owners cabin (my job too!)
Fit a three bladed rope cutter
Remove and max prop, pull shaft, remove aquadrive and refurbish
Service sea cocks as appropriate (my job)
Remove and replace all four flexible feet on the engine
Remove and replace water pump on engine
Change the anodes and replace some of the studs
Replace the battery banks
Fit a D60 Dessalator watermaker
At mast head remove redundant cell phone antenna and replace tri-anchor light, use LED bulbs where possible, also replace mast cabling where needed and VHF antenna
Sort out control to main saloon air conditioning
Fit new electronics: digital yacht: AIT250, CF50 ultra compact PC with 17 inch LCD display, WL200 wi-fi system, Nobeltec VNX software VR9 and 2kw 20 inch radar dome, Iridium value pack, iridium date kit.
Remove and fit new headstay furling unit
Replace standing rigging and re-rig
Weld mast head and repaint accordingly (discovered broken over brackets on survey that need welding up)
Build ‘radar arch’ onto existing pushpit and extend to include seats with teak slats.
Add 55watt solar panel to radar arch
Some cosmetic work to hull re:scratches. She has already had a complete bottom scrape and re-epoxy and anti-foul paid for by the previous owner, there was no osmosis but the boat had had precautionary treatment that had gone wrong and had to be removed.
She has teak decking throughout, some re-caulking to be done, very minor
Forestay stem plates to be removed and replaced – as a result of the survey
New washboard fitted
When we have done all of this we can get on with making it our home. We have spent some time already personalising it and will continue to do so when we reach Dartmouth which will be our home port for a couple of months. We will sail from there around the South Coast and perhaps to the Channel Islands to get used to her before setting off for the Mediterranean. Now fairly late on the 5th and Becky still sanding the porch and I am constructing the resin and gelcoated plywood division for the gas locker so that we can store the gas bottles more economically and get a bit of extra space.
April 6th
Decided to do the gas locker divider gel coat first before the kitchen cupboard that needs construction. It is part of my remit to become proficient in things resin, gel coat and fiberglass while Becky will do sail repairs etc. In between the house renovations looked at SSB radios, and also discovered that a neighbor a few doors down is a radio-ham, so plenty of advice there. Becky will do the SSB course but from my time on the net it seems that ICOM have a lot of the market, but why oh why are they 30% more expensive on this side of the Atlantic? I expect we will go for the ICOM M710-21 but will wait and see what the course Becky attends recommends.
I will be onto Fox's first thing in the morning to see how things are going and when we should go east. I have to go to the Netherlands on Thursday so if we are to have a few days need to go tomorrow or wait to Friday. Jordan is on home schooling now so he is not a problem but we are still sending Indy, she will finish at half term, but both Becky and I would like to see her go back in the water, Chilli Oyster that is not Indiana.
April 8th
Missed the 7th as we worked on the house and did nothing boat related, except leave messages at Fox's. What we did do yesterday was pay the first Cedere Ltd. dividend, the first our company has paid, so we had a bottle of bubbly to celebrate, this seems to be a regular pattern in our life, and although I may not over partial to it, as Becky points out my glass seems to suffer from rampant evaporation!
Well now it is the 8th, talked to Fox's today by email and phone. It seems she won't go back in the water until next Tuesday 15th April 2008, but things are happening:
The watermaker is being installed by George. The water maker is going to require another 'through hull', she is beginning to look a bit like a colander, need to look at the sea cocks very carefully and Oysters are built with solid hulls so no balsa sandwich to worry about.
George has also suggested getting a Combi from Mastervolt rather than an invertor, they seem to give the same output but are cheaper and you have the added benefit of battery charging. It will switch from shore power to battery power automatically should the shore power give out. This is good as we plan to do a fair amount of PC based work and as we know only God can save, the rest of us have to do it with the keys, sometimes we forget and when the power goes off, as it does in some marinas, we say all sorts of rude words. George found this extra facility for less money difficult to believe so rang Mastervolt who agreed with his assessment and said it was not something they tended to point out!
The 'goal posts' are about to added by Martin (his name for radar arch) complete with solar panel. Martin also has an answer to putting seats on the pushpit, but an expensive one, it is however Becky's favourite position sitting at the stern while downwind sailing so I guess we will go for it. He says he will put the radar arch on by Friday and talk me through the seat solution the same day if we go east!
The standing rigging is now ready, complete with three insulators for the split backstay so it can act as a mast for the SSB. Yesterday Becky signed up for an SSB course to get her license in Southampton on April 19th. It may be just possible to get Chilli Oyster to Southampton by then and we can live on board! The electronics, navigation, communication will be Becky's domain once we start.
Finally looks like we rented the house today! Just a question of getting the timing right!
April 9th
Have spoken to Ralph Catchpole at Fox's Marina, Chilli Oyster will definitely go back in the water on the 15th April 2008. We will go to Ipswich on the 11th April and stay on Chilli Oyster on the hard until she goes back in. We have decided it is a must to see her launched, want to get some really good pictures.
Becky, myself and Jordan, after a couple of chores drove up to Fradley Park, Staffordshire to spend the best part of the day on a narrow boat with Oli and Lisa. well at least we were on the water! The locks were good fun. We took Molly and practiced her with the 'Petsaver Lifejacket’; our idea was that she would get used to it and not associate it with our boat if she did not like it. It was a partial success, she ignored it after a quarter an hour of fussing but it kept slipping to one side, perhaps she has a pointy back that is not best suited. It did not need seem to be inclined to any one side; she jaunted along like some 1950's movie star with a Trilby jauntily cocked to one side. Several of us tugged and pulled and adjusted, all to no avail, the only one who wasn't concerned was Molly but isn't that always the way with dog owners?
In fact Molly in her life jacket caused the incident of the day. She cut such a dash that a passing border Collie, fascinated by this odd looking dog descending in the lock, continued in a straight line straight into the canal, fortunately just in behind the lock we were in. The eagle eyes of Becky and Lisa spotted the splashing that was coming over the lock gate and Becky scaled the internal lock ladder like a couple of athletes on heat to haul the distressed victim out of the canal. A cold wet, shivering collie was delivered back to her owner by Ollie, Lisa, Becky and Jordan, leaving me (and Molly) at the bottom of the lock, gates closed and no where to go.
Gratitude was not the order of the day as it happened. The party of 'do-gooders' returned indignant having been told by the owner, who was derisorily described as a 50 year old, inebriated hippy, that she took a dip once every six weeks. Clearly one day there will be no-one around to pull her back out or the shock of the cold water will be too much for her aged related frailty, poor soul.
Jordan has started his home schooling programme and all the way to narrow boat we persevered, this is not going to be easy, we are appalled at how little he knows and how much his current school seems to have allowed him to drift into the background and not learn anything. We will be the saving of him but I fear he maybe the death of us!
Called in on Becky's parents on the way back, they hope to see us off and wish us well. Then drove down to Cheltenham to give my father presents for his birthday and placate mother about the forthcoming trip.
Off to the Netherlands tomorrow, up at 4:45am and home by 6:30pm but the next day we will be back to the boat.
April 11th.
Good job we drove east. We arrived at Fox's to find that she had been re-scheduled to go back on the water on the week beginning the 20th April because they want to do the steel work while on the hard. Not keen on that seems we keep going back in the list. Spoke to Ralph who has brought us forward again but Martin the stainless steel guy is not happy because he likes to weld on the hard, seems to be an access thing. I will have to talk to Martin on Monday and make peace.
Took forever to load the trailer before we left, I am not sure what we would have done had we bought the US boat, this is our second big cargo of boxes for the boat.
After speaking to Ralph we engaged Matthew in the what happened to the bimini debate. Matthew had been on our boat, erected the bimini frame and had the local sail maker take measurements to make a new bimini all at Oyster's expense! Now that is what I call after sales service. Matthew also agreed readily to take us out and show us the local routes out and run us through the Oyster foibles that he was aware of. This very satisfactory meeting was rounded off with a cup of tea fro everyone in the pleasant Oyster offices. Considering where our boat lies in the pecking order of Oysters, judging by the sale cards in the window, about 4th from the bottom in price, this really does live up to the image of once an Oyster owner, Oyster marine look after you.
After lugging boxes up the rolling stairs onto Chilli Oyster we set about making a 'to do' list in the Fox's Yacht Club. Steve welcomed us warmly and as we had coincided with the launch and departure of an Oyster 82 we enjoyed free burgers and bought pints that were reciprocated. We returned to Chilli Oyster for our first night on the boat, albeit on the 'hard'.
April 12th A great night’s sleep, we have joined a little community of boaters here on the hard. Bacon and egg baps with hot tea was the order of the day at the Yacht Club. Prices are so good, at the club, it is so tempting just to pop across rather than cook yourself, we will need to address our dine out tendencies to stay on budget.
Where did the day go, I fiddled on with the new Delta anchor and the re-galvanised chain (great job by B.E. Wedge of Willenall, 01902 608949, real black country and very friendly) as soon as I got the chain attached and hauled up the new anchor it was clear that anchor makers and stainless bow mount makers do not drill holes in the same places! So the anchor retaining spigot does not line up with the hole in the anchor. The only advice was to drill a hole in my new anchor!!! Have drilled the hole and now it fits very snugly.
Fitted the gas compartment divider and equipped it with a full compliment four gas bottles. The flippers and snorkels now occupy the released space, on all of our the charter holidays we have had flippers and masks in lockers and this makes for high blood pressure when searching in a locker, so now they have a dedicated space.
More hooks, more mirrors and more replacement of tired bathroom fittings, it is surprising how each little bit of improvement helps the overall facelift.
Back to the yacht club for the evening, brilliant rib eye steaks and great company of the 15 or so people in the bar at least 2/3rds were Midlanders like us. Nick named the Brummie navy, we compared notes of how expensive the South West Coast was and how unfriendly compared to the East Coast around Suffolk. Although I must say we have spent some very peasant evenings around Fowey.
April 13th Sunday morning and probably will not get a lot done today, John and Halina are coming to pick up Lauren who has been staying with us for a few days, we are booked into the Butt and Oyster, a great pub, in the good food guide just a few miles from Fox's. Did a quick trip to the local B&Q, Becky ad I leaving the kids playing on three computers. Indy remarked 'What did the poor children do in the olden days when there were no computers!', at that point you have to decide whether to engage or not, I bit my tongue and got in the car.
By the time we arrived back at the boat, John and Halina had arrived. We returned from the pub at 4:45pm, one of those wonderful lazy Sunday sessions, in this case looking out over the estuary watching a rampant tide return up the causeway, recovering the mud/sand/gravel beach. Interesting number of house boats around the pub, could have started life as Dutch barges.
In the evening Becky and I soldiered on with towel rails etc and Becky engaged Jordan in 2hours of home schooling, he is beginning to come on. I think he has now learned more with us in two weeks that he did previously in a term. There is just a hint that it is getting a bit easier too.
April 14th Up with the lark this morning in the hope that men from Fox's will arrive in droves bright and early. Scott, the water maker installer, turned up at 9:15am. Martin, the steel man, came at about 10:30am, with a member of his staff with the radar arch. It fitted like a glove. We made our piece and he was good humored about the boat going back in the water. They took the arch away to turn the tack welds into the final article. He returned with cardboard cut outs of where the seats would go. We went through the mechanism for lifting the seats to enable access to lockers under the seats.
I spent the day sorting out the woodwork I would need to do when I got back home. I decided also to check out the bilge pumps, I had been assured that all was ok with the bilge pumps, but the mechanical one did not seen to function and the electric seemed to be building up a back pressure and as I had said when we looked at the boat there seemed to be a lot of water in the bilge. So I took out the mechanical pump and tried it in a bucket of water, it pumped but did not suck! I took it apart cleaned it etc and put it back together, still no suck. I went and bought a repair kit. It is built like a very primitive one sided heart but with valves that open and close passively against the pressure. The valves are made of flexible neoprene type rubber; these harden like arteries and eventually do not move as they should, lesson learnt here, go straight for the replacement kit in future. An added difficulty was that one of the screws that secured the valve that let the water out had stripped its thread, so I drilled straight on through the body and put a bolt through the whole body secured by a nut on the outside.
The electric pump was a different story, it was generating pressure, and I took the 'out' pipe off and got squirted by the back pressure in the out pipe. Clearly the pipe was blocked, so I got the hose pipe and held it against the through hull and switched it on full. After a couple of goes at this I was soaked but the pipe was clear of the concrete like mix that had invaded it. The bottom of the boat had been cleaned with slurry so I guess some got in.
We filled the bilge with clear water and pumped both manually and electrically, suddenly we had a much deeper bilge than before, the automatic bilge pump switch re-emerged and it was clear that there was such a cluster of pipes going into the deepest part of the bilge that it was getting jammed and either not switching off or not switching on depending how it got jammed each time. As it was now 11:30pm it was time to leave it for another day but at least when we go in the water tomorrow I know we have two working bilge pumps but crucially for the ARC we do not have a hand bilge pump available above decks 'preferably reachable from the cockpit. I will need to talk to Ralph about that one.
April 15th Launch day we hope. Scott arrived to continue with the watermaker and when I nipped down the ladder two more Fox' men were replacing all of the anodes, so a lot happening today. Just before the riggers arrived to put the mast on, Oli and Lisa joined us for the launch so they got to see the mast going in as well as the launch they had come to see. Becky has featured the mast in latest news. Then later on in the day one of Fox's launching cranes trundled toward us to pick us up and put her in the water. They wanted us all off the boat but Scott elected to stay on and continue with the watermaker. I did point out to the launch guys that she had no diesel in her at all as the tanks had been cleaned out but as she was going to end up right next to the launch dock they said they would pole her around. There was another Oyster next to ours when we were down in 'the meadow'. It was sold unseen to someone in Thailand and picked up by a professional skipper and crew to sail to Thailand. It seems she did not get very far, loss of engine power off Ramsgate! All the cruising books we have read talk about preparation, preparation, preparation. I am surprised that professional delivery skippers set off on such a journey with so little.
Anyway Chilli Oyster went in the water, no leaks, well not entirely true the girls had very damp eyes as she went in but the bilge pumps stayed idle and the Champagne corks flew!
April 16th Our first night on the water and with guests, Oli and Lisa. Slept well and breakfasted on the boat. Oli and I set about moving an air conditioning unit to make the cupboard it was occupying also useful for storage. A lot of the 'add ons' on the boat have been installed with the installer's ease of life in mind and without consideration for those that will live on board and be desperate for storage. This had been done with the previous water maker, which occupied a huge cupboard, Scott on the other hand has done a brilliant job of getting it in the engine compartment, which makes it quieter in operation and it does not compete for space. We also have a small tap installed at the sink that comes direct from the watermaker, which is an added bonus if the tanks get contaminated.
Later we set about further re-organisation of the lazarette, while Jordan went enthusiastically, as only an inspired 14 year old can do, to get the sails out of storage.
Jordan arrived back with lots of huge bags, I had more storage concerns. When the spinnaker pole arrived on the second shift I managed to put it on upside down! I have only been used to small poles without tracks on masts or indeed no poles at all as charter boats do not generally come with spinnakers. But that was soon corrected and some more humble pie consumed. I guess we will all feed on humility as we get to know the boat and make our mistakes.
Unfortunately lunch time arrived and we had to go, so no time to put the sails on. Next time
On the way back Ralph phoned, he had Martin's boss on the phone Alan to say that there was trouble getting the seats on as I had agreed with Martin (who was on leave). It appeared that a) the proposed position of the new stanchion to extend the pushpit would not allow access below to bolt through and b) the new position proposed, a foot further forward meant that the stanchion would have to in 1ins as compared with the 1/2ins positioning of the other pushpit stanchions. From a layby on the A14 we agreed to the new plan!
April 17th Back home and miss the boat already so that's a good sign! Off to friends for dinner, Simon and Malcolm, they will be the proud owners of one of our dogs when we are away. Hattie, our rough haired dachshund, decided that on this visit she would attack their two friendly Westies! Oh dear! Thankfully they remain resolute that she will be fine. Great food, great wine and great company.
April 18th I am wifeless, she left at 6:00am this morning to attend her 4 day SSB course in Southampton. She will return tonight but stay Sunday and Monday.
For my part I have cooked dinner: deep fried very lightly battered squid, large prawns in a chilli sauce with small slices/chunks of chorizo to start followed by Thai River Cobbler with garlic mushrooms and a small individual 'terrine' of potato, courgette and onion! It was appreciated after a full days course and c.400 miles of driving to Southampton and back.
April 19th Becky left at 6:00am to attend her course. I spent sometime re-visiting the websites for which SSB to buy, it seems the ICOM 802 is a great buy but illegal in this country and Europe and there are tales of people being fined in places like Portugal. Apparently some EU countries see the Yachty as a source of income through fines if they can find something. Guess we will go for the much more expensive 801E, which is said to be more rugged!
April 20th Jordan and I have spent a large proportion of the weekend home schooling, this is a big commitment and one that will be much easier to enjoy when we have everything else organised. Indy is at friends so relatively quiet male orientated weekend.
April 21st India returns and the three of us take the short cut to dinner, off to the curry house, where they wonder where Becky is. Buy a few things on the internet at the Marine Megastore. We have now a Barbeque for the pushpit, gas not charcoal, spent too much time in the Caribbean trying to get charcoal to light.
April 22nd Becky passes and is now the proud owner of a radio license well will be when the powers that be manage to send it to us. Pass rate was three out of five! Her course finished early so she went to Aladdin's Cave and bought some blue fenders for Chilli Oyster before returning home to a dozen oysters with plenty of chilli and onion well chopped in white balsamic and white wine, with Scottish crab and a repeat of the deep fried quid accompanied with chopped baby sweet corn. At Aladdin's cave she also bought, after much debate and advice, some 12mm polyester to use as a preventer when we cross the Atlantic. We have been warned to buy enough to go round the end of the boom forward through a bow fair lead and back to the cockpit to allow quick release. Boats lose booms when they attach preventers invitingly mid-boom. We will loop round the end of the boom with a bowline.
April 23rd Someone wants to rent the house right now! I had not realised how many lose ends you accumulate that need to be tidied up before you can rent something out. In our case my projects like an unfinished TR3b have become a major stumbling block. I console myself with the fact that Fox's Marina prefer us to stay away so that they can get on with the boat, electronics are being installed, engine legs are done. SSB now ordered ICOM 801E it is, we debated this for sometime, it is an extra £500 and when you look at the US prices an extra £1,000, but I guess our Home Office up bringing got the better of us, feel like goody two shoes, but much poorer.
April 24th Several chores to do for the boat , I have ordered socks for the fenders after the advice about preserving paintwork. Oyster are painted not gel coated blue. Becky is setting about getting us Visas for the US, a useful investment given the difficulties of entering the US if you arrive not on an official carrier and non-resident. Seems we have to go to the Embassy in person and it will cost $540, wow!
April 25th A total TR day, the boat seems a long way away right now. We have a to do list on a white board! This is getting to be harder than work! Looking forward to casting off and wondering what to do today!!
April 26th A day on the house, window sills. Also we bought some time ago a 13ft dory, it needed a bit of work and we had never got round to it, now it is being done so that we can sell it on ebay. All sorts of things are going on ebay, kids have got ebay fever too, since we said anything they sell they can put toward the trip. It is amazing how even the most prized possessions can lose their appeal when the thought of hard cash looms, even in minds as young as eleven. Also India has got 'get rid' fever in a big way, if she feels she cannot sell it, the black bag swallows it and I take it to the tip. I did baulk at the sight of Baby Annabel looking at me from the depths of a black bin liner. Beck felt she should be stored, India settled for selling her at a car boot!
April 27th Family issues today, why are we going, what do we want to do that for, from the nearest and dearest. Pub lunch seemed to settle that down but I guess this will go on until we actually leave.
April 28th
Do you know that sinking feeling when the computer suddenly starts to do something like 'Please wait loading' when you have told it to do nothing of the sort and you have just spent the last hour typing up a weeks worth of diary and you just know that when it has done, whatever its electronic brain has decided to do for what ever reason, that then when all is revealed all will be lost and you will have wasted your time and your effort. I have just done exactly that. Feel better now I have had a 'finger type' rant about it.
So today I have started a first, the diary from now on will go backwards in time as Becky said that no one will want to scroll through the drivel of the past to get to the present day, so here goes.
Today’s drivel has nothing to do with boats as I had to fly out on the 6:25am from Birmingham to the Netherlands and then back on the 17:50pm to prepare for the annual conference in Rome. Still had an amusing time on the way and way back with Narrow Dog to Carcassonne, a fun book about two retirees who set off on their narrow boat from the Midlands, go across the Channel and then onto the South of France all with a whippet called Jim. Quite an adventure, told with good humour and relevant to us in more ways than one. Oli, my elder son and Lisa his wife want to buy a narrow boat.
April 29th
Getting used to this backward in time thing. Dave went off to teach Birmingham University how to be safe. I attended the self same establishment for six years, I hope they have improved otherwise Dave will have his work cut out! In those days we used to get the grease off our hands from the weekend’s car maintenance with Benzene and clean that up with Toluene! The smell of ether was often in the air and the air in the organic chemistry laboratory was so loaded with chemicals that I used to emerge after a three hour practical with a headache that would take several pints of mild to shift.
Marg arrived by train, she is Dave's wife and it is Dave's birthday today, so a little surprise for Dave! We spend the evening drinking red wine and eating take away curry and talking yachts and listening to them recap their horrendous journey back from Plymouth to Dartmouth with an Easterly on the nose. All went well and Dartmouth was almost in sight as they rounded Start Point six miles out. The seas became confused and most of the occupants apart from Dave became indulgently bilious. The low point had Dave with the helm gripped firmly in his left hand, Marg's belt gripped firmly in his right hand, as she shouted over the push pit for 'Hughy' and 'Rolf', then the boat took a wave over the bow, it proceeded along the decks, hit the dinghy that was stowed before the mast whereupon it took off, over the spray hood and landed on Dave. On the bright side there was no need to wash the decks down when they reached Kingswear Marina to remove the second hand tomato skins.
Their experience has strengthened our resolve to wait for weather windows and never be in a hurry. The only fixed date on the calendar is November 27th for the ARC crossing.
April 30th
Bad morning some of the Ebay sales have gone a bit wrong and trying to fix things to order, that children have put on Ebay before checking they work, is not easy. However I think we have managed to preserve our 100% feedback, which we take immense pride in. Sneaked off in the afternoon with Lisa, my daughter in law, to look at a Narrow Boat called Iona. A 62ft tug boat, built in 1999, but built to a style that was developed in the late 1800s. Great hull and mechanicals, wonderfully brutish Perkins diesel, 42hp, big for a narrow boat, three cylinder, deep throated, all torque engine. 750 revs and she should 'sail' along the cut for days on end. The lining and first fit had been professionally carried out but the rest of the fit was not so good but liveable. Alas the owner had bought some cheap red paint instead of the required polyurethane. He was obviously one of those chaps that was a danger to anything that did not move when he had a paint brush in his hand and probably a danger to some things that did. He had painted the roof, the gunwales and various other bits intentionally and unintentionally in the cheap red. It was, as is the way with these things, quite incompatible with most of the surfaces he had chosen to make red and therefore was now flaking off over, not only all the bits on Iona that were not red but also on the boats rafted up to her, forward of her and aft of her. We just hoped that there was nothing noxious in the paint, because the flakes of red also lay floating serenely in the still waters of the canal. Apart from this attack of paint psoriasis the boat was very sound and just the kind of thing Oli and Lisa were looking for. The problem was the price, after much discussion Lisa and I agreed, in Oli's absence, that she would start the negotiation the next day.
This was not entirely cavalier on our part, Oli spends 4 weeks of his life 'off shore' on a boat and then four weeks on dry land. His latest ambition is to spend the four weeks on shore, on canal next to land.
