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 pretty major dent in the pile. A few days of taking carts full of waste wood, piping, old wiring etc to the newly arrived skip and the pile has been reduced to almost nothing. That said, the pile of tongue and groove has got larger as I strip more flooring away. I have contacted a local wood charity which takes waste wood and either recycles it or uses the wood once denailed and planed to make furniture and things which they then sell on. The benefit is that they come and pick the wood up and if useful they will give you a discount and they get wood which they then use to help disadvantaged and unemployed people learn a trade. So, I don’t have to hump and dump 400kgs of wood out of the cargo hold and then 200 yards to the skip and they get wood to help people and then sell for a profit. I’d say that’s a win for everyone.

Being at the head of the Bristol Channel, Portishead gets its fair share of rain and that was most definitely on display yesterday as it rained non stop for about 24 hours. The Kleven (or Staysail) got fairly damp so I hoisted it today in order to dry it out. She makes a striking site, even with only one sail on display. Many admiring onlookers and photos later and the sail was dry again so it could be flaked back onto the boom and covered. I will take it off and stow it away once I get some willing (or not) assistance.

I have had some people asking why I just don’t leave the floor joists and put new flooring on top. As much as I would like to save myself the work of ripping up the joists and replacing all the flooring, I have seen some worrying sights as I removed wood from various places. There is what looks like dry rot in places and wood worm has started to attack at various points. Damp had got into places, normally around windows and portholes. If in doubt, take it out. At least that way you know what you are dealing with and can be pretty sure of the structural integrity of what you are putting in. Whether I go for wood floor joists or steel is one I am still ruminating and will no doubt be a post for another day. It'll still be a lot of work, it's just the tools that will be different...

The dreaded woodworm has appeared in a few places...

The masts are proving a tricky one to remove. The owner of the lift company popped over today to have a look at the masts and it seems that getting some form of strop around the base of the mast is not going to happen. There is a fabrication company just around the corner so I will get them to make up a couple of stainless plates with shackle attachments so the lift strop can be fixed direct. I will use 316 Stainless and attach with large hex headed screws and they will be left as a permanent fixture on the mast. It is likely that since there is a lot of pontoon work going on at the moment we will have to wait until early Jan to remove them.

One of the other snafu’s with removing the masts is that I have to remember where all the lines go. On a dull morning when I was waiting for the skip I went around and mapped out where all the mast stays went and have produced a master plan of all the bits of string and wire. I can see a few problems in removing it all, especially one of the wires running between the mast tops, but I think I have it mostly sussed. Once the masts are down and in storage I will sand them down to bare wood, oil and finish them before getting them refitted. No small job on its own.

I am still umming and ahhing about what to do with all the ballast. I think the plastic bags of sand will probably end up being ditched and I will look to either make, or have made, some concrete blocks of the correct size and shape to snugly fit into the requisite spaces. I will ponder on this for a while longer. However, the next major job once having removed all the woodwork is to lift the barge boards, needle gun or wire brush the bilge, derust and then paint. Some of the bilge boards are looking worse for wear so it might be a case of ditching some and replacing with scaffold boards. The big problem with this is, again, the lack of space. It will be a question of moving the ballast from one area, working to finish that small area then reinstating it with ballast going back on top. There will be much heavy lifting, swearing and cursing no doubt, but it needs doing before I get Zee booked into dry dock for the major works.

Still, it’s not like I have got anything else to do with my time…