Saturday 27th - Wednesday 31st March 2004 Dock at Peronnes.

Saturday 27th March 2004 Dock at Peronnes.

On the trolley. 2002 photo

After that clear sky overnight, we had a freezing cold night, -1.4° C and a foggy morning. Mike set to work with an electric wire brush and I got my chores done. Bill handed over a pillowcase full of his washing and I went to find a hosepipe to redirect the waste water under the boat towards the lake, rather than have a soggy puddle under the boats. I found a long length of old hose in the grass and enlisted Bill’s aid with his pocketknife to hack off a length where it had rotted through. Then I cleared a channel across the concrete slabs to run the water into the grass by the lake. Once the pipe was sorted I started the machine off on a marathon session (we hadn’t been able to do much washing whilst we were waiting at Pommeroeul as there was no tap to refill the water tank). I got lunch ready and then joined Mike with the second small angle grinder equipped with a wire brush to clean off the loose Comastic layer on the hull. Once we’d finished wirebrushing, we immediately started the first coat of paint. Helen ‘phoned and said she had been chatting to Geoff, the chap who owns the English bookshop in Gent and is also a friend of Bill’s, who said he would like to join her to come and visit but could only come on the day the shop was shut - Sunday - Helen was apologetic about coming while we were in the throes of all the hard work. I said it was OK, we’d got plenty of time and Mike could collect them from the station. Then I went and warned Bill of the impending visit of his old chum. It started to get cold and dusk was falling as we had almost finished the starboard side. It was 7.00 p.m. when we packed up. I threw some chops and sausages in our grilling machine and microwaved some spuds for a late dinner, which we ate while watching TV. Knackered. 

Sunday 28th March 2004 Dock at Peronnes.

On the trolley. Photo from 2002 

Another cold one -3.5° C, sunny all day. Mike went to get some bread from the village by car. I started off some more washing, cleaned up in the cabin and cleared up much of the clutter. Mike went off to collect Helen and Geoff off the Gent-Mons train arriving at the station in Antoing at 11.34 a.m. meanwhile I started cooking some lunch. When they arrived they had a walk round looking at the boats and Geoff went to have a chat with Bill and look at Rosy’s new engine. Helen came on board and we had a chat. She’d brought us a box of teabags and a Belgian Almanac (useful with all sorts of info besides tide tables) she also left us a book she’d been reading (and hadn’t quite finished) about Captain Cook. Called the others over and we had lunch with an Italian flavour, salad for starters with mozzarella cheese, then chicken Marengo (in tomato sauce with basil, onions and mushrooms) with spuds and broccoli followed by peaches and mascarpone, washed down with an Alsace white Gewürztraminer wine. We chatted for a while then Helen went off to have a look at Bill’s new engine and we chatted with Geoff. He said when he got home he would have a look online for several books we’d been searching for recently. When they were ready to go and catch the 5.26 train back to Gent, Mike started up the car and I went to open the gate and found it was padlocked! Calamity! Called at the house, no one in - Helen then had a chance to have a look in the workshop (I’d told her what a large selection of machinery they’d got for doing all types of repairs) whilst searching for someone to open the gate. No luck, no one about. The gate next to the house was unlocked, but there was no way to get to it with the car - no one drives down the path between the chandlery and the workshops and boat hangars. Helen said they would walk as it wasn’t far. Mike gave her directions for a short cut path, it’s 5 kms by car but only about 3 kms on foot. Helen ‘phoned us at 6.10 p.m. to say they’d arrived and Mike’s directions had been spot on. I set to work washing up, while Mike made a start on fabricating a deflector for the end of the exhaust pipe. A small brown horse was wandering around the boatyard (part of the menagerie owned by the family and only let out once the gates are locked) it decided it was going to bite Mike’s arm and wouldn’t leave off. I threw it an apple, which it nibbled at instead of Mike, before getting bored and wandering off round the yard again.

Monday 29 March 2004 Dock at Peronnes.

Painting the name around the stern bands.
Photo from 2002

Another freezing cold night, -1.9° C. There was mist on the lake when we got up but it was sunny and warmer during the day. Mike welded the extra exhaust pipe on the stern while I held it in place. Then he re-aligned and welded the leading edge tab on the rudder. Continued with the painting just before lunchtime. Bill went to the chandlery and got four new anodes. He asked André about a prop as he wanted to swop his 20 x 13 for an 18 x 13. André hadn’t got one and his supplier couldn’t get one to the yard any quicker than ten days. André suggested cutting the 20” down to 18” and balancing it for him. Bill tried calling Norris’s, they hadn’t got one in stock and wouldn’t be casting that size until several days’ time. Midland Chandlers hadn’t got one in stock either. Bill agreed to let André chop his prop. We finished painting the port side, hooray for that! Mike helped get Bill’s prop off and André took it away to machine it. 

Tuesday 30th March 2004 Dock at Peronnes.

A milder night 2.7° C Sunny and warm all day. Started off by refilling the water tank. Mike started cleaning off the bottom - a job he hates but feels he has to do, it’s a waste of time painting the sides if we leave the bottom! Bill said he wasn’t keen on blacking Rosy’s bottom and so he didn’t clean or paint it. Although the bottom is made from 10mm plate, after 20 years of never having been painted it was starting to show signs of some serious corrosion. I painted the coloured bands around the stern. I put some woollies in the machine to wash, then continued painting. Mike welded Bill’s eight anodes where he indicated that he wanted them, two at the front, two at the back and two each side the midway point along the boat sides. When asked if they would get knocked off in locks, he said he would have to start using fenders. (We don't have annodes fitted as Mike believes they do more harm than good) The temperature was very mild so we didn’t light the central heating or the coal fire overnight.

Wednesday 31st March 2004 Dock at Peronnes.

Nearly finished - 2002 photo

A mild 2.1° C overnight. We took Bill with us to do some shopping, calling first at the post office in Antoing to get a new ‘phonecard on the way to Valenciennes. Mike had taken his tin of zylene thinners, Boiro N° 560 - used for rubberised swimming pool and tennis court paints - to see if they’d got any in Castorama (big French DIY hypermarket). They hadn’t and the bloke he spoke to was most unhelpful and couldn’t suggest anywhere else to try. We went in Auchan, next door to Casto, for groceries, etc. Back to the boat at 12.30 p.m. Lunch. Mike went back to painting the bottom. I did the second coat on the stern colours and the black, the wind whipping several tiny streams of paint across the yellow while I wobbled on the plank repainting the name and port and did the bands. I fried some fish (Estonian - or Russian - zander, bought from Auchan, which was very nice) and chips for dinner.