This morning we had a meeting at the marina, where we have recently become members, to meet some of the board members.

The meeting was at 9.30 and when we set off by bike it was still below zero with lots of frost.  There is a huge thermometer outside the house; the lowest reading is zero and today the mercury didn’t even register so I’m not sure how cold it was.  The municipal trucks had been out in the night gritting the roads. A bit chilly but the sun was shining: crisp and clear as they say.  Very crisp.

We had already met a few of the board members when we were here last year but this was an official welcome from them.   We have got a fabulous permanent mooring right where we tied up last year when we first arrived in Diksmuide, in the shadow of the Ijzertoren (84m high monument and museum to WW1).

On the way back I did a detour to Lidl to get a few supplies, by the time I got home there was still frost in the fields, and, having to do a second run for some heavy items, I decided to wait till later when it would be warmer.  But I waited too long and by the time I went back after lunch it had started raining!

When I got back, this chap, who is working on his very beautiful boat, was welding in the rain under an umbrella. 

Well, what do you do when you have to work all week and only have weekends to work on your boat....

Ian put a lick of white paint onto Njord last night so she is not looking quite so patchy anymore.

Today was all about getting rid of rust.  We took the “carpet” off the aft deck a few days ago.  It is a blue synthetic marine carpet, which allows water to drain through it, and we could see lots of rust marks where stantions and other deck hardware has been welded on.  We were dreading what we would find underneath.  But we were pleasantly surprised.  There were a few rust marks but they were small and just surface rust.  The rust marks at the welds were also not as bad as we feared.  By the end of the afternoon all the rust had been ground or sanded out, a rust arrester product applied, and now the aft deck is ready for painting.

It’s 8 p.m.  and Ian is still working, he tells me he is going to be late tonight.  That means very late because he never stops before 9.30.