Now you see it…

The painted forward compartment looks seriously stunning now it’s finished, and it’s a dull gold colour as planned- Steve, we can’t thank you enough.
This however means that whilst we wait for it to cure off a bit it’s time for overalls on again, back to the scabby stern for me, and on into the engine room bilges for Robin- who gallantly spent all of Sunday cutting a large hole out of the keel plates in readiness for our big midships rebuilding plan.
What did I do at the stern? I knocked out that pesky concrete around our stern tube. No big deal thanks to a bit of deft sideways action with a borrowed jackhammer, it was still soaking wet with seawater despite the fact that Robin cut off the plates that contained it some months ago, I mean, we’ve only been out of the water nearly two years for gods sake, once broken up this stuff was literally dripping. Hold on a minute- removing it IS a big bloody deal because it was the very last bit of concrete in the entire vessel. Over the months we’ve dug it out of every crevice from stem to stern, and now it’s finally gone I feel a sort of hole where fretting about it used to be. Once upon a time I used to forlornly grasp the jackhammer with blistered hands, repeating over and over the bizarre mantra ‘one day it’ll be all over’, and almost unbelievably that day has actually come to pass. Please can I have a cold beer now?