Keeping the Faith.

Over the last few weeks it’s been a big trick to find time to invest in working on the boat. Strange work commitments meant that I could get there some days, only during the week, but would have to leave each day at around four. I was lucky because there were fortuitously a couple of these short days at the start when B could come to lend a hand too, which was dead handy for moving the plates around during preparation.
You can see from the pictures that building the deck over our generator room was what we dedicated that time to, and in common with everything else that we’ve thrown at Wendy Ann- to do a proper job takes plenty of time. One of these days I’ll stun myself and floor everyone around me by accurately predicting how long a given job will actually take.
I should also mention that having plated, tacked and welded up the deck itself, I was all set to make the two hatch covers but woke up that particular morning with an excruciating pinched nerve in my neck. Feeling belligerent I determined to get to the boat anyway, which (never mind driving there feeling like I'd welded my own vertebrae together) left me welding the covers up with my head stuck out from my body like a sore sort of industrial turtle.

The picture of the deck with its first coat of primer on it makes for a smooth, elegant (almost!) finished impression, but belies the truth; that I could never have tackled a fabrication job like this if it weren’t for the wealth of skills that I learnt from both Robin and Larry during our vessels big rebuild back in Southampton, and the best thing of all? I’m sort of pretty proud of the result, that’s what.