Biting the bullet

Hi everyone. Long time no post!  I'm back out to Herbie on Monday to start a big scary job.  A bit at a time I'm going to repaint Herbie's cabin sides.  Same colours as before.  The old paint, now 14 years old, has gone flat and matt and is looking very drab.  When we did the big repaint in 2010 it took a gang of us to do it and we had a nice indoor dock to do it in.  It was hard graft I can tell you. This time I'm doing it outdoors and solo so it'll take some months to get it all done.  Here's a reminder of how it looked when we finished last time.

Blimey, we were so chuffed at the time.  Realistically, I can't imagine getting it so good this time but I'm hopeful it'll look a lot better than it does now.  I'm tackling it one panel at a time starting with the dark grey, port side front.  That panel is currently unblemished apart from a wee bit round the window frame so it's a good place to start. 

So I've amassed a pile of abrasives and paint and wotnot, bought a posh new cordless random orbit sander, and with some trepidation I'm biting the bullet. Wish me luck.  I'll try and remember to do a 'before' photo.  I always seem to forget to do that when doing a job.

In other news, I have a potential new solution to getting out rainwater from the engine 'ole.  As I've said before, the bilge pump does get down to the last inch or so.  After all the rain we've had there'll be plenty to dispose of despite the back deck having a drain channel.

Quite a long time ago I bought from Aldi a water pump that fits onto a power drill.  When I tried it I couldn't get it to work, possibly because my old drill didn't run fast enough.  Anyhow I dug out the pump again and got some hose and had another go at home with my newer drill and to my surprise it works a treat.  See here (click the little box in the right hand corner to get it full screen):

 

It's portable, lightweight, easy to use, self priming and seems to get a really good flow, so I'm hopeful it'll make the task about as simple as it could be.

Meanwhile for those interested in the Herbie ship's kitten selection  process, here's the latest photo of the candidates, now 5 weeks old. We don't have a particular front runner at this stage.  They're all really cute and all on the short list.