More Boat Work

Shiny New Stem Plate

This boat is teaching me a lot.  A lot of patience that is.  It seems to be taking 10 times longer to do the work than I ever thought it would  However, it is going well, what I have done that is and I know it'll be strong too.

Old stern Chainplate

New Stern Chainplate

The last mention on here was I removed the rusty stem plate.  The stern chain plate was equally as rusty and I removed that too along with the port and starboard plates.  The stainless ones are now back in place and fibreglassed in.

Rudder Cut in Half

The rudder which you saw me stumbling around with has been cut and the shaft and bearings removed.  I enjoyed this job as it is the only job thus far I could do standing in a normal position  The bearing has been reamed out and had a plastic sleeve in it and is ready to be reinstalled along with the shaft which has been shortened in readiness to be attached to the tiller.  I'll be excited if I can get this project finished this year!  Sally has sanded the mast and that is ready to be coated with a aluminium coating once it stops raining.

Royal Botanical Gardens

Every couple of years S and I go to the botanical gardens in Burlington.  The RGB is the pinnacle of gardening and is well worth a visit.  Throughout the year they hold events such as a; lilac festival, rose garden, etc.  This year we decided to go to the rose garden at the beginning of July.  We both needed a break from the work we'd been doing and I was recovering from a kidney stone event, so this trip cheered us up no end.  We took a picnic for lunch with thermoses for tea rather than the stove.  A few years back we did take the stove and left quite the scorch mark on the grass, which I'm glad to say, has grown back with barely a trace.  I can't say too much about the beauty of the gardens; it's truly something you have to discover for yourself.  In the meantime, here's a few photos.

It's been awhile

It's been some time since I posted and for that I'm sorry.  Summer hasn't been all work.  We got out kayaking a few times.  We have a new place we like to go to; it's Little Lake in Peterborough.  It may not be exhilarating but it has plenty of variation and a nice beach for swimming when the water is warm enough.  There is the lake and also some channels behind the campground.  The railroad crosses one end of the lake on swing bridges which add some fun to the paddle.  At the west end of the lake there's a huge fountain.  Very tempting in the stinking hot weather.  Of course we can then wrap up our day out with a visit to Costco.  I'm sure our soggy, dirty look entertains the shoppers.

This is also the location of Sally's famous demonstration of the semi Eskimo roll in August of 2008.
Getting out with the kayaks became infinitely easier when we got the truck.  Not only is the roof lower than the van for loading it is easier to with some slick Yakima roof racks.  All the gear goes in the back of the truck and we aren't too worried if it's all wet either.  Getting changed in the truck is a bit tricky but since neither of us have been too shy the parking lot suffices.  This also scares off any people that want to come and talk kayaks.  Not as though I mind talking but everyone else has a better kayak and can't wait to tell you about it.  They either have longer, lighter, more stable etc etc.  But we are out in ours and they are just talking about it!!  For the record the blue boat, which is really H's is a Necky Santa Cruz and the green boat is a Necky Manitou Recycle.

The Rusty Stem Plate

Although the "The Rusty Stem Plate" conjures up ideas of English beer, this, in fact, is not so enjoyable.   Cape Dory, in their 1970's wisdom decided to use a lot of mild steel backing plates in their boats.  This is fine if it doesn't get wet which, invariably it does.  When we bought the boat 4 years ago it was pointed out that the stem plate was rusting so we decided to remove with when we got chance and replace it with something better.







I have read lots on the forums and blog sites about this; phrases like; impossible, many hours over several days and a great job if you are a midget miner.  Let my tell you it was tough and after it was out 10 hours one day 1 and a half another, I was sore all over.  Just for those of you that don't know boats it's in the very pointy bit at the front inside in a small cupboard called the chain locker.

We'll feel much more secure with it replaced that's for sure.  There's also nothing like the satisfaction of "do it yourself", and I keep reminding myself of that.  As for my body it looks like a fell into a rotating gorse bush!

New Adventures

Well it's not really a travelling adventure but an adventure all the same.  We have for a while been wanting to refurbish out boat.  Our boat is a Cape Dory 30C (C = cutter).  She's a lovely boat and we have had some great adventures on her.  However she's getting a bit rusty in places so we decided it was time to fix her up.
Working in the boatyard is bothersome it's a 30 minute drive and you never have what you need right there so we decided to move her to our house where she fits down the side of the garage just nicely.  Prior to that though we had some preparations to make.




Firstly the rudder had to come off.  The day after returning from the UK we started work.  We uncovered her and then emptied out everything we could.  Then we removed as much of the steering gear as possible and then got the yard to lift her so we could drop the rudder out.  To get the rudder of I had to first grind out the bottom bearing and support and remove that - now we are committed!!!

Sally finds it all very exciting especially having sandwiches in the back of the truck.

Snape and Thorpeness

S and I needed some exercise so we headed out to Snape to walk on the marshes. We had downloaded a plan of this from the internet some time before just in case. The walk was exceptionally pleasant. We parked at the Maltings and walked over the brigde before heading along the well marked and worn trail. Initially the footpath follows the river but then heads up into some woods. We met some people on the trail that suggested we headed over the hill and back a different route so that we could see the Exmoor ponies that graze there. So we did. It doesn’t take too much of an increase in elevation to see the effects of the sea wind on the flora of the hill. The trees were gnarly and stunted and gorse bushes were abundant (with extra sharp spines!) All of a sudden we came across about a dozen ponies grazing in a clearing. They didn’t seem to bothered by us so we didn’t bother them. Back at the river we followed the trail through the salt marshes back to the start of our walk. Kestrels hovered over head and wading birds plied the uncovered sands as it was low tide.

Two sailing barges sat in the sand at the maltings giving the whole place an olde worldy feel. It all looks nice until you start visiting the shops and tea rooms and see the prices are definitely not old world! The antique shop was interesting though to poke around in but again horrendously expensive.

We drove over to Thorpeness with the intention of walking around on a trail. Once there we had more tea and then decided that taking out a row boat on the Meare. Mandy our boat had it’s preferred route and it took me a while to become master of the vessel. For S it was a ride back in time as she used to do this as a kid with her friends. In her childhood she remembered that the lake had a Peter Pan theme with Wendy’s house, a crocodile and Captain Cooks castle. Much to her pleasure they we still there.

It was nice to see romance still alive; we rowed passed a couple who had boated out with a picnic and bottle of wine which they had set aside to indulge in some other activity. Obviously the sandwiches weren’t filling enough!! I’m sure the weed and mud that sprayed from my wildly thrashing oars added to their afternoon indulgence.

Back on Terra firma we headed to the pub for some sandwiches and a beer. Delicious!! Then we walked for miles around public footpaths and byways almost to Sizewell where we popped out onto the beach just short of a nuclear power station. We followed the Suffolk Coastal Trail back into Thorpeness for more tea before returning to base with glowing faces and tired feet.

The Chaffinch of Charfield

We have met many nice people on this trip including friends from our childhood. One of these is Dave. We look forward to our visits with him and him with us with great glee as each visit has it’s life challenging moments and side splitting events. This trip was no exception although our dangerous plan to remove the corner of the neighbours house which obstructs the Sun from Dave’s garden was not executed due to lack of chemicals. Having said that I’m sure his homebrew would have sufficed. Apart from laughing and drinking we did some serious listening to music. Dave has the best classical music collection in the world; often waking up with the BBC frantically knocking on the door asking to borrow something for their morning show! This time a collection of Beethoven’s symphonies conducted by David Zinman, awesome, a bit faster but also with lots of extra notes I’ve not heard before in other recordings. Apparently this was the way it was intended to be played but as Beethoven is long gone we’ll not have chance for his critical opinion.

Saturday saw us loading up the VW bus and heading out for a picnic. It was Dave who got us into VW’s in the first place. We owned our own VW camper van when we first married and have yearned for another ever since. Anyway, I digress, we picked up sandwiches in Tesco’s and with half a dozen thermos’s of tea on board we headed out to Purton for a walk. We parked up and walked down to Sharpness along the canal bank. The setting is perfect with the River Severn on one side and the canal on the other. Seeing canal barges chugging up and down reminded us of last years trip. The River has several old wrecks along the banks as a reminder to how dangerous the Severn tide can be. At low tide as it was this day it’s just a trickle but on certain tides the bore can be surfed and regularly is. There is also the remains of a railway bridge that was destroyed in 1960 by a run away barge loaded with petrol.

Back at the van we enjoyed our sandwiches and tea and a wonderful little church all decked out for a wedding that afternoon.  I've figured out why the canals are so shallow.  Every day tons of stale bread gets thrown into them in efforts to feed the birds.  Obviously bread is not a staple for ducks but one greedy swan certainly enjoyed a couple of slices that Dave and Sally threw to him.