We had just one big job today – painting the first coat of topcoat (the first of two) onto the hull.  But Thijs still had some sanding to do on the other boat in the shed (which is called Agricola and belongs to one of the committee members of Ijzervaarders, our new yacht club) so our work day was delayed until he had finished the sanding – sanding dust and newly applied paint are not happy companions!

Just to back track a day, Ian had a bad day yesterday, the sanding did not go well and he was rather demoralised by the end of the day.  For him, it was a short day, he had had enough and quit at 18.30.  After a relatively early dinner he even managed to watch a movie before he fell asleep.

This morning could have been a late start but Ian was up bright and early and rode off to Delva, the DIY store, to be there when it opened at 8.30 so he could buy an elbow he needed for the engine installation.  He was back by 9.00 and at 11.00 we started painting the topcoat.  I say “we”, well, that is rather like the royal “we”, all I did was cast an eagle eye over what Ian was painting to tell him when he missed a bit!   We finished at 3.00 and then had lunch. 

The fruit of our labours – look it has a shine!

In the afternoon Ian did some work on the engine and then some work on Elle (the toilet pump packed up just before the end of their cruise last autumn and so Ian did some investigative work to find the impellor was the problem).

This evening was a bit different.  Lukas, one of the Polish guys who rents here, spent the evening tiling the kitchen.  Until now the splash-back in the kitchen was wallpaper, not ideal!  So this week they bought some tiles and Lukas did the tiling.  Pretty darn good he was at it, too.  He is an electrician by trade, working on eco-energy installations with solar panels and wind turbines but his father was a tiler (or builder, perhaps) and from the age of 10 Lukas helped him when not at school.  So we all kept him company while he did the tiling.  Fun evening, including finding out how to make a meal from scratch in a microwave oven.