While I was packing up ready to go home this morning, some gentlemen were busy installing safety ladders at the end of some of the pontoons in the marina. It didn't take them long, just a few minutes in each spot. I don't know how many were installed in total, about one for every half dozen pontoons at a guess. I'll check next time I'm there. Anyway they're a good idea. Anyone who has fallen off a boat knows how hard it is to get back out of the water. I think the water depth is such that you could wade across to the nearest ladder if you were unable to swim although short people may struggle. I like the bright yellow for visibility.
There now follows a long bit of no interest to people who don't enjoy watching paint dry, but for those that might (and for the record) . .
Over the last couple of days I have been taking advantage of our move to the other side of our pontoon and getting to grips with Herbie's port side handrail and the gutter inboard of it. A lot of rust had gathered there and a fair bit of angle grinding and sanding was required to get rid of it before overpainting with some rust beater paint. More coats will be needed, probably in the spring but it should hold it through the winter.
Once I had painted the handrail, shown above I set about the rusty patches you can see in the picture. That was taken after a preliminary 'grind' to remove all the flaky paint and loose rust. Then lots of sanding and wire brushing got it ready for a coat of the paint.
What I don't have a photo of is all the dust I created with the angle grinder, but believe you me there was a heck of a lot of it. The hoovering up and washing down took longer than the grinding /sanding. Then a good wash with Sugar Soap, dry off, then wipe with a tack rag and finally a wipe over with white spirit to cut any grease, and on with the paint. Just a three inch strip down the side of the roof for now. Something I learned from Phil Speight's boat painting course years ago was that if you are just repairing a patch of paint, it looks much better if you mask off straight edges around it and paint within that. Hence the masking tape you see below. I think the splodgy bits you can see at the far end are just where the paint was still wet. This hammerite stuff actually dries pretty fast, even in the cool temperatures we had.
Whilst I got into the pits with a wire brush on my drill, the pits have not yet been filled to get a flush surface. That can be done later on top of this 'holding coat' before the undercoat and top coats. Time is short at this time of the year with only narrow windows of time to get the job done at the right sort of temperature and humidity.
Interestingly I read that many paints require you to ensure the temperature is at least 2degC above the dew point. There are simple calulators on line to calculate the dew point. Here's the one I used
You have to know the air temperature and the relative humidity, both of which you can get with reasonable accuracy from the Met Office weather forcast for your area. So using that I knew I was well in the clear. Later in the autumn it could well be a problem.
Loads more to do of course, but it's all moving in the right direction.