The Waters Rise!!

 We awoke this morning to find the marina water level had risen by nigh on three inches. This tells us two things:

1. CRT have been letting some water down the Claydon flight, probably to stop lock gates shrinking and also to facilitate some work boats around Broadmoor lock where they are installing new sheet piling

2. The stop planks separating the marina from the canal must be letting water through

Anyhow we're all pretty pleased. I reckon the water depth at Herbie's stern is now 4ft which should gove us a 2ft clearance.

Rain is coming tomorrow so after top coating the side hatch doors this morning, I've suspended all painting work for the time being. It took me a good 40 minutes to clear all the tools, accumulated rags, spent abrasives, bottles and cans of various painting related substances from the deck locker tops.  Finding somewhere to put it all is a bit of a challenge but its done.

I was a bit disappointed in the finish on the hatch doors at first as they look very brush marky, but coach paint is amazing stuff and as it dried out it has flattened to a decent finish. 

Here's before and after. Ignore the scruffy surround, that's a job for another day. A lot of the brown stuff is just Fertan rust treatment.

Those doors haven't looked that good for probably ten years. You can see how much the old paint has changed colour over time. The new paint on the doors is exactly the same paint as the pale blue looking either side. Craftmaster Light Grey.

Although there is a huge amount still to do, Herbie is looking radically better then she did 6 months ago. Quite frankly she was looking a bit of a wreck then. I think one of the biggest factors in getting this done has been the use of a good cordless orbital sander and  a cordless angle grinder. They make relatively easy work of getting rid of old flaky paint and pitted rust and not having to worry about trailing power leads makes quite a difference.

Now I'm putting my feet up for a short while.