It was good to get to out to the boat this weekend. I’ve been a little ill this week and the cabin fever was starting to set in. Before I start blathering on about anything, some housekeeping:
- I’ve set the site up to only display 3 posts on the front page. I was just increasing the number of displayed posts as I added them. In the end it was getting too long, and when viewing the site on a phone you’d have to scroll all the way to the bottom before you saw any of the side blocks. This should make it easier to read everything this site has to offer. As if you’d go to any other website anyway!
- Speaking of the side blocks. The Spunkometer has been updated. So far the total has crept up to just over £1200. That’s not bad if you consider £350 of it was the actual boat and £360 of it is mooring fees.
- If you’d not noticed, two extra blocks have been added to the site:
- The Beasty Crew – I’ve added entries to this, unfinished as yet, there’s just some placeholder text on these pages for now.
- Timeline – This relates to this post. As I get further information on the boat it’ll get added here. Not a bad job on the graphics for that eh? You’ve gotta love Power Point and the ability to export slides as images.
Manflu, as a result I wasn’t feeling too energetic today and decided not to do anything too strenuous. So contrary to what I stated the other day I decided to clean and tidy out the cockpit. First order of the day was to clean the cubby hole (I don’t know what the boat wanker term is for it right now), whatever it’s called, it’s where I guess you’d keep your open beer and bowl of Doritos and dips?
Next up was removing the dashboard, and then cleaning underlying surface and then covering over the gaping hole with some tarpaulin. Sidebar: It has been noted elsewhere that I absolutely butchered the tarpaulin the last time. This is on account of the fact I’d left the scissors at home. Well I can gladly report I remembered them this time. Only they were blunter than Blunty McBluntface smoking a blunt (Sorry James). So back to the hacksaw it was!
I tried to work as neatly as I could with both tarpaulin and gaffa tape.
Rinse and repeat that exercise across the whole of the cockpit and the final result is pretty good, if I don’t mind saying so myself.
Don’t worry, I kept the dashboard. I’m going to get that replaced at some point. I’m still undecided on the colour I want to go with. I reckon black. But that’s up for debate at a later stage I guess. Once I finished cleaning I set about identifying all the holes that needed filling. Excluding the obvious ones, which you can read about here. If you thought the Titanic had problems with just one hole, then what hope have I? I started counting but lost interest after 30. Can I just add, that none of these holes was created by me? After identifying the holes I got out my little grinder thingy and prepped them for filling, hopefully tomorrow. If it doesn’t rain. That’s what cut my day short today. I may regret using a Sharpie.
The more eagle-eyed of you will have noticed in the second video that the little wooden step in the cockpit is now no longer. I “may” have had a little accident jumping into the boat earlier in the day, and the step may have given way under my weight. Anyway I cracked my head on the canopy roof trying to keep my balance. I now have a lump and and scar to add to the list of injuries that have ocurred whilst being a boat wanker.
Oh! Canopy! As you know I have been battling against the elements to try and keep water out of the boat as much as possible. Version 1 has worked ok so far, but it’s not perfect and I need to keep the cockpit dry, if only for when I am at the boat.
Version 2 has been suggested by Zed to get a bigger tarpaulin, hook it up to the roof of the cockpit, and then take it down to the transom, which, if I am honest is a superb idea. Why didn’t he think of this before? I may dock some wages.
But, there may be a Version 3, but it’s a fucking expensive option, that said, it’ll be an “investment” and will add to the aesthetics of the boat, not just now, but permanently. I found this website, and they actually do the cover for the make and model of my boat. £570 though? That’s almost twice as much as the boat! This is what the boat would look like if I decided to spunk some hard-earneds. Not sure I’d go for the beige option though. That’s not the make and model of what I have, just very similar. It would make life so much simpler. I may speak to Zed about it. It may be overkill for now.
