I took these two pictures last night of the thunder storm passing over Burnham, the river had been very choppy, with a strong wind against the tide. As the storm approached, the tide turned allowing the river to calm down, which was nice!

Our neighbour has asked me to prepare & paint his fishing boat; as I don't seem to have a lot on at the moment, who am I to refuse!

I drove over to Pagglesham this morning & put in a six hour shift, mainly sanding down all the outer areas, before staining the gunwales & buffer strips along the side. I don't like using water based wood stains, they seem to sit on top of the wood, rather than penetrate it but hey, it's not my boat!

The next aim, tomorrow, will be to apply the gloss paint to the hull sides & fore deck, with a second coat to follow on Wednesday. Hopefully, I can also apply varnish to the stained wood, the same day, as he hopes to get bit back in the water on Thursday!!!!!!!!!

The interior of the cabin needs the most work but, that will be down to him to complete once he has brought the boat around to Wallasea Island. It is a nice sea going fishing boat, just a shame it is made from marine ply & not GRP as,it will take a lot of looking after.

Since taking these shots, I have applied the first coat to the red beam,using a darker shade, supposed to be claret but, we shall see! Once this has had the second coat, I shall start the green area,using 'Buckingham Green' which hopefully,is somewhere near to the original although, as it has not been painted for a few years, the new shiny gloss coat is bound to be a tad 'In your face' to begin with.

As it has been a couple of weeks since my last posting, thought I would bring you up to date. As we are still enjoying lovely sunny weather(bound to rain tomorrow now!) & awaiting the not to take Warrior to the boat yard, we have begun painting the upper superstructure. I now have an insight into what it is like for people who have to keep bridges etc painted, there is a lot of it!

After sanding, I went around with the red oxide, hence Warrior looking a bit spotty!

Sunday 9th August.

We decided to take the tender up river to have a mooch about & a picnic. With high tide expected at about 3.15, we left at 12.35, so we could use the tide, sticking close to the banks, to avoid getting in other boats way.

We motored for just over half an hour and found a nice place to set anchor,out of the way of all the mad speed boat owners! I only took my phone camera with me, the first picture is looking across the river, with Canewdon church at the top of the distant hill. The fishing was the usual success, third cast, the line snapped, sending weight, hook & bait into the briny & guess who didn't bother taking any more tackle with him!

Luckily for me & Barney, Steph took plenty to eat for the picnic, as you can see, the ever hopeful Barney waiting patiently by the biscuit box!

After eating, Steph produced a couple of tin of stella, which was nice. We carried on up the river until slack water, then turned about, to make our way home. This time,I decided to go the roman way, and stick to a straight(ish) line, to reduce the distance around the meandering bends. With the tide with us,it did not take long to get back to the barge, even with the 4hp mercury outboard. Today was one of those days we shall try to remember in the cold winter!

Just to add to the previous post(tried to add as an edit, without success).

If you click to enlarge the photo, you will just able to make out the word 'Warrior' on the right hand side, below the number 52. We are often asked why the name 'Warrior' was chosen well,here is the answer! As it is deemed to be bad luck to change the name of a vessel, 'Warrior' it will remain.We have also been told by a passing London cabbie, that the building in the background are Wapping, taken around the late 80's.This would be about right, as there is a name plate left by the welders working on the conversion, which is dated 1990.

Warrior pre-conversion.

Hope these come out ok, they are a scan from a photograph.

The bottom left shows 'Warrior' in the pre-conversion days, when used as a Lighter on the Thames. The word 'Lighter' derives from the fact that these vessels were used to take goods from larger ships & therefore, making them lighter.

The top two photos shows the owners at the time, doing the hard graft in preparing the hull for conversion.

The remaining picture shows 'Warrior' in dry dock with the conversion of the superstructure completed.

Getting back to our usual routine again, after our week away in France. Went & bought a new chainsaw today,we have been given a huge amount of hard wood planks,taken from the deck of a converted fishing trawler.

Took Barney out on river today for his first trip in the tender. He did not like getting aboard from the pontoon but,once we were moving, he settled down & enjoyed his maiden voyage. I still think we need a larger engine though.