BACK to the WATER

A beautiful Thames Bawley, 'Bona', arrived alongside whilst Lady Cate was out of the water. 'Bona' was built in Brightlingsea in 1903, a true classic.

As you can see from her huge bowsprit, stored under white covers here, and her highly extendable mast, she could carry acres of canvas. She was used for shrimping in the Thames Estuary. Once filled she would race back to market. First boats to market got the best prices.

Here she is in full fig, Harwich 2007, picture courtesy of Photo Diary.

Back to Lady Cate who now has a lovely red bottom and bright shiny de-dinged props.

The hull has been prepped and painted to a fine finish by Simon and Matt, pictured and young Billy who missed his photo-op.

So off to the water, with a sigh of relief on my part. Living ashore is not much fun.

And down in the dock ....

... in to water again. Hooray!

Back to home berth looking especially fine with her fine paint finish and original blue stripe livery.

A Lick of Paint and stuff

 SURVEY and PAINT

Insurance renewal came up and Lady Cate needed a condition survey, so she had to come out of the water.

She is also showing signs of paint slippage above water and her anti-fouling is nearly two years old so time for a re-paint.

Here she is out in the yard, rubbed down, taped up and ready for a respray. The weather has been very capricious so it's all taking a long time as we need a window of good weather to allow the paint to harden.

Steve has completed the condition survey, which was very satisfactory. She is in fine nick. Must look after her.

I found this picture of her from her 2002 survey. Very smart so I've asked Simon to replicate this as much as possible.






STUFF

Such a useful word, stuff.

It's good to be back blogging. Not sure why I let it drop during the cancer scare except the whole affair was quite knackering.

I had radiotherapy and have a three year course of hormone injections. This treatment has been successful in bringing down my PSA level to near zero. Hooray and huge thanks to Ipswich General Hospital which has been very efficient throughout. Feeling much more stable these days.

More soon.