Cap'n Spack Jarrow
Brownian motion-type musings on barge renovation, life and other bits of flotsam.
Open Heart Surgery on 'The Beast'
Firstly let me wish all my dearest readers a very happy New Year and hope they had a relaxing and enjoyable festive period. Mine has been suitable relaxed as I have been away from Zee for a while and despite the worry of the rotten hull giving way and me coming back to find 2 masts sticking up from the water where once there was a slightly . . .
Bong, Bong, Thud...
"Water, water everywhere
but not from places you'd think"
Bastardised from Coleridge's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner it unfortunately sums up a recent discovery.
Whilst clearing out the bilges there was a fair amount of crud and detritus unsurprisingly. As I approached the port side of hull where it . . .
A Load of Old Bilge
(No, not Trump's fiscal policy, but close...)
I have almost got to the bottom of it. And by 'it' I mean Zeelandia and a few surprises were in store. On lifting some of the bilge boards I started probing with various tools into the crud and rusty brown detritus which has accumulated in the bilge. Big chunks started coming up which was slightly perturbing considering this was all . . .
No Room at The Inn...
or cargo hold, or skipper's cabin...
As of a few days ago, the cargo hold was well and truly full to bursting. Zee even had a bit of a lean towards the side with the monster pile of rubbish inside.
However, with the assistance of a mate on the marina who took a whole Mondeo boot full of firewood back home to keep him warm for several weeks over winter, we made a . . .
Running out of space...
Apologies for the late publication but progress has been slow recently and there wasn’t much point in taking photos of not a lot and trying to make up something witty (ish) to say about it. Now I do have something to report. I have removed about half of the remaining flooring and have found something amazing - ballast. Butt loads of it. . . .
My Own Personal Mecca
My shooting friends can skip this... Seriously, it's just Bisley and Q3 stuff...
For those who don't know me, I am a keen target rifle shooter. Bisley in Surrey is my Mecca and I have been going there since I was about 15 years old. I started shooting air rifles when I was about 8 (thanks Dad, awesome present) and picked up small bore (.22 calibre) when I was in the cadets at school. As I was a boarder I was able to . . .
The Plan Never Lasts first Contact With The Enemy
Or to put it another way, keep your options open...
There are some pretty major jobs which need doing on the barge in the coming months. This include mast removal (storage, sanding back to bare wood and oiling then refitting), blasting all the old paint off above and below the waterline as well as blasting the oil and grease from the insides of the hull, derusting, application of 2 pack . . .
