The dry dock ain't dry no more!

So, the overnight gales that everyone's talking about. You'd think that because the dock was covered high winds wouldn't worry us. Wrong!!! The plastic curtain covering the entrance flapped alarmingly all night, sleep was almost impossible, and even though it was tied back, I honestly thought it would take off at one point. Then on getting up this morning, we found the dock had at least 5-6" of water in the bottom. The torrential rain had raised the river levels overnight and water was coming in from the brook instead of flowing out. John and Mick arrived and immediately dropped the paddle and inserted a pump. With all this going on it delayed our start although with my wellies I could at least wade through and make a start. Margaret on the other hand only had ankle wellies so had to wait for the pump to do its job. I did nip outside to look at the river and was just in time to see a rainbow over the dock.

Proper waves on the river. Wouldn't like to be out boating that's for sure. On red board as well!

Water in the dock

Glad it didn't rise anymore 'cause we had only blacked along the water line yesterday.

John placing the pump and Dennis oblivious to it all only having eyes for his prep work.

Pump placed in a bottomless bucket and grill raised.

Oops... hose sprung a leak.

We've managed to do quite a bit today. I got on with the blacking and then painted a first gloss coat on the tunnel bands. Ian did all the hard work, though, prepping them both for me. He then went on to apply the bitumen under the swim area. No way could I bend down enough to do that. Hip still giving me jip you see. Then out came the sander and gunwales had a good rubbing down. After I had cleaned off the dust I called it a day. Ian was going to give the gunwales the first coat of paint but he was a bit over exuberant with the sander, going right back to bare metal in places, so red lead had to be applied and won't be dry for a few hours. It's one of his first jobs tomorrow and mine... the last coat of bitumen... hooray.  

Sanding the gunwale