Sisyphus was the king of Ephyrus (now Corinth) and was punished by the Gods for his deceitfulness and self aggrandising by being forced, for eternity, to push a boulder up a hill and then to watch it roll back down. Rather than a boulder up a hill, I had a hold full of cr@p which, despite the equivalent of an ultramarathon in distance covered to and from the skip and an aching back, never seemed to be getting any smaller.This was pretty much my Easter. I had arranged with the previous owner to have a 6 cubic metre skip delivered to Zee in the hopes of moving the majority of the demolition detritus from inside and gaining some much needed work space.

There were multiple delights to this job but the most fun bit was having to load up the rubbish into a crate, attach it to a line, run upstairs onto the roof, lift the crate through the window hatch and then transport it, crate by crate, the 100 yards to the skip. Fortunately the same gods who cursed Sisyphus smiled on me and the weather was a balmy 13 degrees with blue skies and light winds which made it less of a trial.

By midway through the afternoon and about 2 tonnes of rubbish in the skip was pretty much brimming full. The previous owner showed up for a quick chat and look around, and chuckled as he looked around the main living area. As we walked out he said “You are very brave...” - I think the line between reckless stupidity and bravery is a fine one and I am not sure which side I currently reside.

As we walked back towards his car he noticed the 6 doors in the skip, plonked unceremoniously flat on top of the junk. “ You should have put those down the sides and made the skip taller. You could get more junk in it”.... Rookie error. Why didn’t I think of that? Now containing 2 tonnes of crud, it was going to be difficult, so I left it.

The next 2 days were spent tearing out a section of the saloon ceiling and wall. I was assured the ceiling contained the original hatch covers from when Zee was a freighter but I was disappointed to find they only started as I approached the rear wall of the saloon.

The new steel was in pretty good nick but there were rust patches inside under some of the spray foam. A word of warning if you are using foam. The gap filling foam is fine for brick and so on which is ultimately porous and can dry out, but against steel this foam just acts like mini pools of water. It doesn’t create a “closed cell” structure and does not form a strong bond with the surface meaning it can still rust underneath. If it ain’t 2 part polyurethane, it ain’t no good and you should think seriously about where you use it.

One of the elements of the barge which was fully revealed after removing the upper part of one of the side hull lining was a large frame. As can be seen it projected through the wood covering the wall and ends up being one of those nasty cold sinks and will condense out any atmospheric water vapour given half a chance.

At this stage I am not entirely sure how to deal with these. I have seen people make hardwood sleeves for them and affix them using 2 part foam which has been hand mixed and spread on the frame with the wood cover slid on and held in place while the foam expands, binds and cures in place. This would certainly solve the issue and would be my preference rather than having a large slab of 4mm steel poking into the living area dripping water on the floor...

Once I am done for the day after about 7-8 hours, I tend to spend an hour Wombling in the main living area. This involves sitting on the stool I found and going through all the pieces of wood by hand, removing nails and screws, cutting out sections in which there are embedded screws and setting aside for a later date for planing and thicknessing. I have probably saved a good 250-300kg of wood which, more importantly doesn’t go to landfill and I don’t have to carry to the bleeding skip.

I asked the previous owner about some of the wood which is deep red with an unusual grain. He said that when Zee was being refitted immediately after being retired, the chap who owned her didn’t have much money and was berthed in Scotland when he noticed some old packing crates which had come from Indonesia and managed to secure them for nothing. I will contact a carpenter friend of mine and see if he knows what it is and how best to treat it once made into something more useful than wall coverings.

I have made good progress getting rid of stuff and am now able to move around and work in the main saloon area. I have made a start on the kitchen. Both fridges are in the car in the hold of the ferry as I write going back and destined for Gumtree.

After considering the advice about the doors in the skip and realising I was drowning in demolition debris again I decided to revisit the skip and reposition the doors. Easter Sunday was spent once again transporting crates (and 2 buckets bought especially for the purpose) of rubbish, floor sweepings, insulation and Wombled nails/screws to the skip. Just a quick hat tip to Elvira - you should be able to see the chair that you hate close to the near end of the skip. Yes it is finally going to the big trash heap in the sky...

The biggest pain the “le derriere” will be the cooker and the diesel boiler. I don’t know if the window hatch in the ceiling is big enough for the cooker to be extricated and we will probably need a block and tackle or someone approaching Hodor’s frame in order to lift it. I can feel discs slipping out of place as I think about it. The Diesel boiler will be an even bigger headache. I have found the diesel isolation valve in the engine room but I hope there is another one closer to the boiler so I don’t end up spilling what diesel remains in the line into the bilge. The other snafu is the integral hot water tank which is full of water obviously. I will have to find a way of venting this safely and not into the barge prior to disassembly and removal through the hatch.

It seems that the only place to sell such items in the Netherlands is MarktPlaats so I will pop them on there for sale and see if I get any joy. An extra pair of hands to remove the boiler would be handy if they want it for a knock down price.

We had some fairly fruity winds in the last day or two which I understand were storm Katie and have wreaked havoc across the UK. The combination of wind and rain have found the weaknesses in the wheelhouse and have shown themselves by leaking around the entry way to the Skippers cabin. There is rotten wood behind the bench seat and entry way so there may be some corrective work to carry out there in order to stop it getting any worse. The steel is badly rusted and flaking and there are areas where you can see daylight so I suspect there will need to be some reconstructive surgery with the plasma cutter and stick welder. The major snafu is that the wheelhouse would have to be removed in order to do that, which also means disconnecting a lot of the 24V electrics. I suspect replacement wheelhouse, metalwork, new companionway and new electrics will have to coincide over a couple of weeks hard graft. In the meantime I suspect the judicious application of flashing tape will suffice and stop the majority of the leakage.

Fortunately the ferry crossing back was pretty benign. I was expecting wall to wall vomit but was delighted that it was barely noticeable. We did get a tug escort out of the harbour though due to winds which were 25 knots ish gusting 40...

I am home for about 2 days, just enough time to wash the undies, load up and head back out again, this time for about 10 days solid. I am hoping that I will be able to clear all the saloon, the 2 bedrooms behind the saloon and the bathroom to reveal the cargo hold in all its enormity. Once that is done I can start wire brushing the hull, derusting with Vactan and then spray painting with red oxide primer. It's going to be a long 10 days but needs must when the devil drives...