Rufus

For a brief time today I had rather fetching red hair instead of my usual grey. I thought it would be blue so I was surprised. I was stripping the blue paint from the inside walls and lockers on Herbie's semi trad rear deck using those scotchbrite thingies I told you about recently. Surprisingly the blue dust seemed to disappear but the red oxide undercoat got everywhere, hence the red hair. Next time I'll wear a hat. I got the starboard side done before it started to drizzle, so I slapped on a coat of Fertan, pulled on the covers and stopped for the day.

Its a slow business and its just as well I have started before we go into the wet dock where we are on limited time. I aim to have all the back deck area stripped primed and undercoated before the official start of the "Paintfest".

A couple of facts and figures for fellow anoraks. In stripping about 2 square metres of paint I have worn through one and a half Scotchbrite discs (aka clean and strip discs). Because our electricity meters at the boat yard show cash remaining, I was able to tell that using an angle grinder for about 2hrs continuous it cost 15p in electricity. That seems cheap. Despite using an angle grinder in a confined space for two hours I still have ten fingers. Remarkable!

Stupidly I forgot to take the camera, so no before and after pics today. As a consolation here are a couple of springtime photos taken at Kensal Green our London trip last week.

Note the shiny Brassoed tiller below. I find Brassoing very theraputic.