Change Of Scenery!

Just had a lovely weekend away with the Boaty Crew! I decided on the last minute to go, after looking at my endless list of jobs to do, I pulled the pins and scarpered!

We didn't travel that far but moored up in a lovely spot, relaxed in the sunshine and just had a very much appreciated chill time. Plenty of wine, spirits and beer flowed and a lot of fun and banter took place. I have to say a big thank you to everyone who made the weekend so enjoyable. Robin, our Commodore and Patrice made the weekend a great success.

Tickety Boo nestled in the trees on her new weekend mooring.

The lovely outlook from the mooring.

Bobby Dog enjoyed the change too. We were moored adjacent to a huge playing field, that Bobby decided would be a good place to show that he actually can run, and not just a feeble trot which is his normal gait, he loved it! He had a lot of new dog bottoms to get acquainted with too! His face was a picture every time he saw a new four legged friend to go sniff out and say hello.

The weather was really kind,Saturday stayed dry, Sunday was lovely, sunny and warm, so we all trooped off for lunch at the Ship Inn and sat in the beer garden in the lovely sunshine. It turned quite chilly on the trip back, the wind was icy, it was nice to get back though and cosy up by the fire. Bobby curled up on the rug and slept for hours, his legs doing the dream shake now and again, he was obviously back on the playing field galloping about in his sleep!

So, now to today, it was raining earlier but now seems to be brightening up, fingers crossed it stays that way as I have jobs to do outside. It is great to have a few days off work this week, so next weekend will come around quickly. If weather allows it will be "S" day, S for starting to sand the boat ready for painting. Obviously I won't get her all done in one go so she will be done in sections. I intend to start with the roof, the hand rails being my first job, they are really bad so a lot of hand sanding there. There is a lot of rust on them, I am ashamed to admit. I have made a promise to myself, that now I have my enthusiasm back I will hopefully never let the boat get into this state again. The worse you let it get the harder the work to put it right!

I will sand the rails back to the metal where the rust is really bad, I will then apply Kurust, red oxide, undercoat, then top coats, I want to try and get as many top coats on as possible before winter sets in. I want to tackle the really bad bits of the boat first, get them out of the way. Bring it on!

Can I just say at this point, anybody reading this blog, if you see that I haven't started my mammoth task, you have my permission to get on my case about it and give me a firm kick up the backside to get me going, any encouragement from you will be very welcome. Just one more thing, if any of you are travelling to Liverpool, feel free to moor up and sand a patch on Tickety Boo! If all the boats that passed did a square foot of sanding she would be ready to paint in no time! Then again I could have a sanding party, now there's a thought...