Strange Week

Its been a strange week since the last post. The passing of an era.

I have now sold our Narrowboat.  It needed to have a pre sale survey, unfortunately my marina could not accommodate us on the slip when we needed it but the next marina on the system were able to.  So I went down the marina last Sunday to save a rush on Monday morning.  The new owner turned up and we set of about 10am.  4 hours later we had covered the 12 miles to the other marina.  The boat underwent its survey and apart from some battery terminals that needed soldering and a small clip on a gas pipe all was good.  I stayed at the marina overnight and they soldered the terminals and I did the clip.  All work done I set off back the the home marina.  

 It was a sad journey for me tracked on my iPad

It was the last time I would be the owner of that boat at the tiller.  We have had it for 5 years and have enjoyed every minute if it.  Its been a great first boat and has been the springboard to this boat I am now building.  I hope the new owner has as many good times as we have had.

Leaving Stanground lock

Peterborough city 48 hour moorings

Midsummer Comon 48 hour mooring Cambridge

So having only a short week the priority was to get the rear ready for the cover.  The cover incoroprates a dodger which is the lower part which wraps round the bottom.  To make a neat and weatherproof job of it required a bottom rim to be made and welded in.  Once that was fitted next came the hard part of rubbing down the whole of the stern metawork then finally priming.

 The lower rim

This rim didnt follow the curve of the lower part of the boat so I had to make an infill fillet and weld it in just near the bollards.  The lower rim follows the upper rim.

I will give this a couple of days to harden right off before rubbing down ready for gloss coat. I have used 2 pac primer.  The spray gun I have has a very fine adjustment on it.  As 2 pac is a chemical cure paint the fine adjustment on the gun allows very fine placement of spray.  The primer is a high build filler/primer so the gun can be used to precisly fill any small areas which need building ready for rubbing down.

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Its been a shitty week

One every 98 minutes is seriously fucked up, something you should know if you plan to cruise Guatemala, and Donkey Mountain makes a good point/prediction...

Its the first day of summer and in France the streets are alive with the sound of music during the Fête de la Musique and Im well and Im more than a little depressed.

Its been a horrible week. The sort of week you really just wish you had not read the news at all, topped off by a senseless racist massacre in a church in South Carolina.

Made even worse, if that is even possible, by listening to a clown car of spineless, self-serving politicians running for president and FAUX news say that it wasnt about racism, that there was really no racism in the US of A anymore, and that all things considered it was really the fault of any number of things but certainly had nothing to do with racism or guns.

Yeah right...

Of course, as some folks will no doubt write in and tell me...

 "But that doesnt have anything to do with boats or cruising, its depressing, so you shouldnt write about this sort of thing"

... Heres the thing, it really does have something to do with boats and cruising because Ive been at cruiser get-togethers and had to listen to stupid racist jokes and generally stupid comments of a racial nature far more often than youd expect in a community that prides itself on being non-racist, open-minded, and welcoming to all...

The sad fact is that overt racism has become so prevalent these days that its considered normal and when confronted with it instead of doing something about it far too many just pretend it doesnt exist...

But it does and we should all be doing something about it.

Listening to Fortunate Youth

So it goes... 

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