Ian finally finished working and came in for dinner at 11.00 last night!  He painted a coat of primer onto the aft deck so now it looks like this

Somewhat of an improvement, I think.

Today he got up late.  Actually he woke up quite early and asked for a cup of tea at 7.00.  I was rather surprised after his 16.5 hour day yesterday, but when I got back with the tea he was fast asleep again.  I didn’t wake him because I’m sure he needed to sleep and he eventually woke at nearly 9.00.

His first job this morning was to sand the hull, the “measles”.

The next job was to mark the waterline.  Thijs has a wonderful gadget, a laser level

that shines a laser beam onto the hull.

Here it is in close up

But before marking the waterline you have to make that the boat is level.  Well, it wasn’t.  The starboard side was a  little higher that the port side and the stern was too high.  Levelling it from side to side was no problem but dropping the stern by a couple of inches was very disconcerting.  Thijs and Ian did it together but it meant removing the main prop under the keel at the stern, reducing the height and putting it back again.  With the keel prop out the boat was only supported on the skinny side props.   

Nail-biting moments!  But it all worked out, they got the boat level and replaced all the props without the boat falling over.  Thank goodness.

That accomplished, we marked the waterline position with spots of tape

then Ian applied a sign writer’s tape all the way around the hull and painted the final coat of black epoxy.  When that has cured he can finally apply the first of two coats of anti-fouling. 

Meanwhile I continued with my cleaning spree.  This is what green crud looks like

and it is around every window, solar panel, stainless steel fittin; in every nook and cranny on the deck.  By the end of the afternoon it was all gone.  My next job is to tackle the brown stains from the tar dust on the old paintwork.

See what I mean?  The new white paint on the coach roof cleaned up just fine (with a lot of elbow grease) but the old paint work just absorbed that tar colour.  Please note no green crud around the windows!

This evening Ian is drilling two new holes into the hull, one for the bilge pump outlet and the other as a drain for the gas locker, which will have to be properly treated and primed before he can paint the hull.