Well this week has been mostly concerned with destruction. Not only of my body (see below) but also of the final pieces of the interior. The cargo boards have slowly given up their secrets, but we made an executive decision that they weren’t worth keeping in the long run. They are pine or equivalent softwood and had started rotting in places. There also looked like an oil or tar covering which seemed to have been burnt in some places. In short they would have been a lot of work for some mediocre wood.

Yeah, that ain't red paint...

One of the most tiring bits of this section of work is having to spend the whole time with my arms above my head swinging a 4lb hammer at a sharpened crowbar or axe (which I found in the foc’sle and sharpened up). As someone who has suffered from too much rugby and target rifle shooting my shoulders are not in the best condition and they ache constantly now. I am looking forward to getting this chunk of the work out of the way.

The beam which refused most attempts to remove it until today. What you are looking at is 3 hours work...

Removal of some of the metalwork required more serious safety gear.

On a positive note I have managed to get the main beam down from the centre of the roof, now only with a smaller section left and only 2 boards remaining. I have a shot blasting specialist coming over in a couple of days to look at the project and hopefully give me an idea as to cost. I am tossing up the idea of welding plate in the porthole holes when they are eventually removed. This will not only seal up the hull and allow us to reposition the portholes in an OCD pleasing manner, but also give me some experience with welding this steel in what will effectively a cross between open root and butt welds. It should give me some idea of the amperage needed and how the 6013 welding rods behave. It’s not structural per se so I am pretty confident I can get a decent finish. I have a few more airline junctions and connectors to buy before I can fire up the plasma cutter and have found a local steel wholesalers so it’s looking good.

With all the destruction going on the poor old car has taken over the role of ‘pick up truck’ going to and from the local recycling centre. One of the large black polypropylene tanks has been reduced to its constituent parts as it was too big to get out of the skylight in the cargo hold and it just needed to go. There is only so long I can keep stuff I am not going to use but I am hopeful I can find a recycling bin for it at the local centre. The other tank will be heading the same way very shortly.

On a slightly different tack we have been thinking about going electric for our cooking needs. Having recently tried an induction hob, my other half was quite impressed with it so we are considering this instead of gas for the hob. This does have pretty major implications for the energy requirements and more importantly the battery bank. The plan was to have 3 or 4 of the 2.2-2.4KwH Aquion saltwater battery stacks but I suspect this would have to be upped by another one at least. There is also the knock on effect as to whether the PV and wind turbine can cope with the requirements. I will run it past my renewables guy and see what the ramifications are. On the plus side we gain the room from the gas locker and it also makes the Boat Safety Certificate much easier, and from a safety point makes things inherently safer. Each stack costs about £1000 so they aren’t cheap, but compared to an equivalent Lead Acid setup, they are smaller, less hassle and only slightly more expensive.

Another concern are the masts. They are in need of a good sanding down and either oiling or varnishing. Since the masts have a gaff rig sliding up and down them it is likely that varnish would suffer and become cracked very quickly. For this reason I am leaning more towards sanding down and oiling the masts. They need to be topped up every now an again and it precludes any water based varnishes in future. I need to ruminate on this longer before I decide. I also need to contact a friend of mine who was a tree surgeon for advice on fall arrestors etc as I will have to go up in the bosun’s chair to do this delightful task and the thought of a 16 metre fall onto a steel deck does not fill me with joy…

Zeelandia has got lots of admiring looks and has created plenty of interest. Once the destructive work is finished I can put a little more effort into beautifying her a bit more. She looks tired but is getting there slowly.