Back on the mooring.

Thought a short video of Warrior being hoisted back to the river would be good to see, rather than a still photo.

This one shows our Barney inspecting the mess left behind & that is only what was under the hull, we had cleared away along the sides a few days before. In the distance, Warrior has reached the jetty, ready to be relaunched back to the mooring. I was left to clear the mess away with a shovel & wheelbarrow!

Living on a barge perched ten feet up in the air, in a boat yard, is not my idea of fun. Just over two weeks since lift out but, it seems like a month or more.

The sand blasting only took two days (rather him than me!) & the 2 pack primer & top coats were applied the following day. The sand blasting found four weak spots & did for several rivet heads. My task was to tape over these areas before the painting could start & then take it all off again afterwards.

It was hard to find a welder at short notice & we have to thank two people (can't be named) from my work place, who came to our rescue, spending 15 hours between them under the hull. Good to know there are still some diamond geezers (Essex talk) out there.

The final part of the welding was completed yesterday (sat 19th) & I have spent this morning going over the welded areas applying a 2 pack primer. Once that has dried, I shall be under there again applying the 2 pack top coat.

Monday afternoon, warrior will be lifted in the hoist, so we can gain access to the areas covered by the chocks. These will have to be prepared & coated the same night, as we hope to be relaunched Tuesday morning.

It's all go!

 After the spraying on of the 2 pack epoxy paint system.

There is a welder under there somewhere!

Looking forward to getting back afloat, so we can start the big clean up, there is grit every where!

We have lift off!

Well, lift out to be precise.

Warrior hanging around waiting for the yard lads to do their work with the pressure washer & scraper. Once the cleaning was done, the tricky task of driving the hoist & our home through the yard full of boats, to her resting place for the next week or so.

The shot blaster is due to arrive on Monday, hopefully by then we shall be more used to our lofty position. Getting on/off via steps is a tad iffy to say the least & Barney dog is unsettled by it all too.

No tv or wifi until we can move dishes etc.

Lift out delayed

I was hoping to post that Warrior was now high & dry in the marina yard, awaiting the arrival of the shot blasting team. Unfortunately, due to delays with the same work to our friends barge, they were not able to be re-floated today, meaning we could not go ahead with our work, as there is only one space available.

We are not too disheartened after looking at the weather forecast for next week, we would have probably been frustrated at being out of the water & the works not being done so, all in all, it's best to delay it anyway. Apart from the rain, strong winds are on the way, not good conditions for shot blasting in the open air.

Hopefully, the 'Indian Summer' we have been hearing about, will show its self in the first week of October, when we should be able to get back on track.

Now that the rain has begun, just thought I would post a phone picture I took the other morning, as a reminder of how good it can be;

This was taken at sun rise, through our starboard port hole.

This is the finished starboard side. Warrior is now turned back around, facing up river.

Gluttons for punishment that we are, we have now arranged for Warrior to be lifted out next weekend. The entire hull will be shot blasted & coated with a 2 pack epoxy paint system that is applied to oil rigs so, hopefully this will not need redoing for several years. We intended leaving this work until next summer however, the anodes need replacing now & at £1500 or so per lift out, it is financially prudent to have all the hull done now. Having done most of the topside this summer, we should not have much do do next year, which is nice!

On the social side, we have several new liveaboards arrive this summer, bringing new life to the marina. Two couples are new to life afloat & have really settled in well already. One 'newbie' said 'I have never been to so many parties.' With this summers great weather, there have been a few impromptu gatherings on various types of vessels, which has been great to get everyone (who want to) new & established, to get to know each other & prepare the newbies for the winter months!

The next posting will hopefully show the lift out.

Blog found again!

Having been stuck on board today due to the torrential rain, I suddenly remembered this blog & thought I had lost it all. Needless to say, after a few searches around the net, here we are again.

Not sure where to start with it all really, last year was not good at a personal level (RIP MUM) so, it is probably best for me to just start again with this summer's news/updates on life aboard Warrior.

On top of everything else, last years 'summer' was a total wash out, meaning our annual painting regime had to be cancelled. By the time winter mingled into spring, Warrior was looking rather drab & in need of a spruce up. We were hoping to get at least one side of the outside repainted & began with the port side, with ease of access from the pontoon. The preparation is the most important part in my mind, the green, red & grey areas shown in the short video, taking nine afternoon's/evenings of sanding, scraping & one hour on the killer needle gun!

Once prepared, the painting does not take that long, just three sessions in total for the green & red (supposed to be burgundy)

With the weather forecasts looking good for July & into August, we decided to do as much as possible this summer & with the help of good friends, we turned Warrior around to gain easier access to the starboard side & as you can see from the next video, things were not looking as good as we always hope.

In total, this side took four weeks to complete, it's not something you can carry on doing day after day at our ages!

It might have been done faster, had we also not had to take the tender out for maintenance too. I knew we had a leak somewhere, as the bilge pump kept coming on at regular intervals. Needing Warrior turned around & TT Warrior taken out, the usual thing happened, with both being done the same weekend. This meant we were doing a couple of hours a day on the tender & a few hours late into the evenings on Warrior.It turned out that the tender had a small hole just beneath the transom, this was soon fixed after a short course on how to repair holes in fiberglass, courtesy of YouTube! The photo shows TT Warrior back on the berth, after all the works were completed (new transom plate, metal reinforcing brackets & woodwork varnish)

If it ever stops raining, I will post updated shots of the completed port/starboard sides of Warrior.

The Dunkirk Few

Thought people would like to see this boat, moored behind us today;

She is one of the Dunkirk 'Little ships' that went to the rescue of troops in 1940.