Tuesday 23 May 2017

Pre-Crick: messy jobs


Because of work, Adrian can't come up to the boat until this evening, so I had a day of boat jobs to do. The one I really wanted to get done was to scrub the cratch cover, which was looking decidedly sorry for itself -- covered in bird droppings and turning green. I took it off, which is quite a job in itself; I'm sure I've said this before, but you only realise how big a cratch cover is when it's off the boat. I took it up to one of the picnic tables on the bank behind the boat, so I could lay it out and scrub it. What also needed removing were loads of spider nests, under the flap over the cratch board.

After the first scrubbing and rinsing, I left the cover to dry out and went to tackle all the spider nests on the cratch board. I even laid the board down to get under the bit at the bottom. When I went to look at the cover, it wasn't as non-green as I'd hoped, so I gave it another scrub all over, then tried to squeegee off as much of the green water as I could.

Other jobs completed today include driving down to Tesco at Wolverton to stock the fridge and cupboards, and lots of cleaning. I cleaned out the stove and then polished it with stove blacking; I swept through the boat from end to end; I cleaned the shower cubicle.

During the day, I had several visits from a swan who was just going around hissing at people. A better visit was from this crowd.

The day started very cloudy, but the sun has been out for most of the afternoon. Might we get a Crick Show with decent weather this year?

4 comments:

Quaysider said...

The best way I found of cleaning canvas (car roofs in my case) was with johnson's baby bath and a scrubbing brush... DONT jet wash (you just push it further in... rinse with a low pressure hose for as long as you can be bothered too... dont worry if it appears to go a bit bobbly - (once dry and coated with fabsil, it'll be good as new) - to kill off the green stuff, use milton tablets (dissolved as per instructions) poured over and left for a while, before rinsing off again.

For really stubborn stains, a hand held steam cleaner and electric toothbrush are useful.

Then, once dry, paint on (using a large brush) fabsil and it'll be dry in no time - wipe up fabsil spills on glass/paintwork/wood before it drys.

Hope I'm not trying to teach granny how to suck etc. I used to valet cars in my dads garage .
Mark

Adam said...

That's useful for the future, thanks. It wasn't too bad by the time I'd finished. I used Fabsil spray this time. The biggest problem is the marina swifts (or are they swallows?) who like to perch on everyone's TV ariel!

Unknown said...

You've done such a good job Adam that you ought to offer to come and help a couple of old codgers to do their's! 😁
Have a lovely time at Crick, we do miss it.
Kath (nb Herbie)

Mrs. Jaqueline Biggs said...

Lovely to see you both go by today, looking so happy and laid back on the stern of Briar Rose. Have a smashing time at Crick. As for cratch covers, you are correct--one never realizes how bloody big they are until the necessity of wrestling one occurs. I recommend you avioid having one around your prop!

Love Jaq xxx