Handrails

I came up to the boat after a night shift, mostly because I was due to have two boats tests tomorrow, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.  I also wanted to spend a few days repainting the handrails, which I last did almost five years ago.  I’d thought about doing them in the week before Crick, but as so often happens, we went boating instead.

Anyway, I called in at Tesco on the way, and still arrived at the boat at 9am.  I unloaded the car, did the loo, and filled the water tank.  Then I got ready to set off, at a little before 10.  There was a stiff breeze making the turn out of the marina tricky, and I had to put the nose on the towpath and swing round.  I only went as far as the nice mooring through Bridge 63, less than half an hour away.  Once tied up, I quickly got to work prepping the handrails.  Last time, the paint had completely failed, there were big rusty patches, and I needed to do fertan, primer, undercoat, and top coats.  This time, the paint is actually still pretty good, it’s just that it’s faded and lost its shine.  I cleaned them, gave them a bit of a sand, and then a really good dust, and got the masking tape out.  I started with the existing reel of blue tape by Duck, which no longer seems to be made; when that ran out, I switched to the red Craftmaster tape.  Low tack doesn’t even begin to describe how non sticky it is, and it’s also translucent.  Anyway, it meant I had blue and red tape in use, which looked a bit odd.

When I’d masked up the towpath side, I set off down to Baxter’s to turn around.  Here the wind helped, and I spun round very easily.  There was a breasted up pair heading towards me, going very slowly, but I easily got round before they were too near, then I retraced my steps.

When I got back to the same stretch, I lined up the galley window with the hole in the hedge, for the view.

I masked up the other side (you really need to be on solid ground to get it right, which is why I turned), then got all the paint out.  I was reminded about the saying that there are only about two days a year in the UK suitable for painting outside — and they often turn out to be yesterday and the day before.  But actually it would have been too hot recently, whereas today was warm but not hot, and with a nice breeze. The painting has to be done fairly quickly, and I really wanted to get it on before lunch, to give it a good chance of drying.  I did the towpath side first, then worked my way back on the offside.  They already look so much better.

Last time, the inside of the handrails only got one coat of paint as I ran out, and I fear the same might happen this time.  And the forecast has deteriorated for the next few days, so it might be a little while before any more painting gets done.  Boat tests have also been rearranged — the afternoon one is now in the morning, and the evening one will be some other time.

3 miles, 0 locks.