A lil' more progress

The galley is progressing, oak has been cut and sink is in!

Still got plumbing to sort in the morning but thats the easy part.

I still have to install the cupboard in the starboard (right) side but that has no plumbing or holecutting so it should be easier.

My engine has also decided to stop working again, which is nice.

I think its crap in the fuel tank, so galley work might be halted to fix that.

Aquanomad :O)

Got paint.

It's been a bloody long day for me today, got woken up at 4 AM with some really heavy rain. Rain on a steel roof is quite loud, no, actually very loud.

Jasmine now has a bit less 'antique pine' on show, took bloody 3 coats of undercoat to cover the damn stuff up though!

The ceiling is 'Old English White', and I rather like it. Still got the walls to do though, along with about a million other jobs.

Oh and thats my new stainless steel cooker in the middle of the room, should have the galley (kitchen to you land lubbers) finished by next Friday all being well

I have a floor!

Well almost!

The front half of the bilges are nearly done and I am rather happy with the results.

All of the rust has been converted with the help of Jenolite and then covered in 2 coats of zinc primer.

Still got a bit of floor left to do tomorrow then it's onto painting the ceiling and walls.

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot less 'antique pine' in the future!

Here's Ken again, grafting with a roller in his hand.

Holey boat Batman!

The work on Jasmine has begun in earnest, starting with the galley and saloon.

Saloon has now been ripped out and access holes cut in the floor to allow the treating of any rust and subsequent painting.

I hadn't initially planned on taking the refit this far, but if you're gonna do it, you should do it properly, plus I have Ken to help, which is makes the job a lot less daunting :o)

It's this kind of work that can increase a boats lifespan considerably.

Here's Ken doing what he does best, bilge diving!

Stoppages, dogs and rust.

Well, It's been a busy few days, I've been cutting holes in my floor and finding lots of rust!

Not ideal, but rust generally looks worse than it is, this is because the steel 'grows' to about 10 times it's original size when oxidised, basically a 3mm thick bit of rust only means you have lost 0.3mm of the thickness.

Well thats enough of the rust, on to the stoppages.

When we arrived at Ware lock, the Environment Agency were there in full force, divers and all.

There were some issues reported with the lock and they were doing an inspection.

It turned out to be a bit of debris stopping the lock gates closing, or something like that, but here's some pics.

Now on to dogs..., I'm dogsitting for my friend (Ken) and his scruffy little pooch is a bit of a character!

Silver lining...

Well it's been a bit of a day, I've performed a skintank bypass and it was successful.

Jasmine will probably survive. I can't say the same for my once 'baby soft' office worker hands.

Back on the move tomorrow, more pics to come!

Good night

Aquanomad

Good the bad and the ugly...

First the good (via the medium of photograph)

Not sure what this man was doing rowing a childs toy down the river, but hey...

Ken and Toffee on Halcyon leaving a lock

Ken and Toffee again

More Ken and Toffee

Halcyon and Jasmine in a lock

Ken and Toffee will probably be a feature in my blog for a while, as we're been cruising the same waters together for several week, and hopefully for a lot longer. I met the travelling pair at Little Venice, I was having engine trouble and whilst my back was turned for a couple of seconds Ken dived into my engine compartment and got to work on my engine. Over the short time I've known Ken I've seen that unconditional offer of help continually given to all. Ken, you are a Legend.

Toffee has also helped by licking the dirt from my ever hairier face (Toffee is a hairy terrier type dog BTW).

Now to the bad, I might need some steelwork done on Jasmine. It appears that one of my skin tanks (which is like a radiator on a car, but also part of the boats structure) has corroded so badly that it's leaking coolant into the cabin bilges. In laymans term, BAD!

And the ugly? Well there is no ugly, even the bad is not that bad.

So I might run out of money sooner and have to get a job before I'd planned, so what, I'm still living the dream...

Aquanomad.

More explosives

Couldn't crop these unfortunately, on my 'other' laptop...

DIY and Explosives

A slightly misleading title, but here's a pic of Jasmines internals.

And here's some pics of fireworks.

Watham Abbey

Took a walk into Waltham Abbey tonight, the church in the town square is rather nice.

As was the beer (not in the church, in the pub(which is my church))

Aquanomad.

Work begins!

Today was a very productive day for me, I actually started work on Jasmines interior :O)

After four months of putting up with the chintzy caravan style curtains I've started on making some nice contemporary shutters.

I've surprised myself with my woodwork skills, in the past I'd spend ages fashioning a piece of perfectly good wood into something only fit for the fire, or perhaps the Turner prize, but this time my work actually vaguely resembles what I had in mind!

Before

After

During

Obviously it's not finished, but I've started. And that can only be a good thing.

Aquanomad.

Where's mine?

All of the birds flock to my boat for breakfast.

Pics are back!!!!!

Well I went out and bought a new camera today, which means that I'll be posting pictures again!

I am now the proud owner of a Canon Powershot SX200, I went slightly over budget, but it's a great camera. I gotta work out how to use it properly, but here is a shot of Jasmine taken in auto (idiot) mode ;o)

Aquanomad