BOXES EVERYWHERE

Well after a lot of effort and scrounging boxes we got it all taped up and ready for the long drive down to Andover , where the shippers would send out to Portugal on a big lorry , ten packages including the life-raft all went in the back of the car and off we set just before dawn,

 The trip was just under four hours and on the way back we popped into Oxford to have a bit of Lunch and see if LEWIS was filming , it was a Monday and apparently they don't film on Mondays .
So that is a task off my mind , It will be delivered to the yard on the 6th/7th March , and with Luck I will have done a load of jobs on Simo , the two biggest is to get the anti fouling done that will involve rubbing down and applying a coat of anti fouling primer then leave for 24hour before applying 2 coats of the real stuff , Th mast is out ready for a complete rubdown 2/3hours and then I want to get about twelve coats of Deksolj oil on ,I can do it (the oiling ) in a day takes about 15 minutes then wait for 15 minutes before over coating, the weather will be warm so I can get that done and at the same time do some other jobs like putting the name on the transom, sorting out the roller reefing on the flying jib ( it has new bearings , and just needs bolting together ) and then mounting on the end of the bow sprit , there are a load of other jobs to do , and David should be down on the Friday so we can make short work of them , The yard will also have to step the mast and move Simo to the launch place by Friday, because that is the day of relaunch ( I hope ) . When the boxes arrive I have to empty two of them and refill with stuff that is being returned to the UK , sanders , paint and other stuff that is no longer needed on the boat , like the 40LB Luke fisherman's anchor , never been used in the 7 years I have owned Simo ( sods Law ) yeah we wont mention it , any way only 20 days to go before I can get stuck in  and I just cant wait, I am going to get some t shirts done this week so all the crew look good , when I get them back i will let you know

till then keep warm

best

Mick 

 

What a job , What an oven !!!

Well all the tins have been stripped of their labels and have been dipped in a mix of varnish and turps , a lot of the tins will be going down in the bilge and it may just get a tad damp down there so at least the tins will not rust ,

Yes that is snow on the ground outside and I had two fan heaters trying to keep the greenhouse warm because Jackie would not let me do the job on the living room carpet !!!!!!!!!!!

the tins took a couple of days to dry and were then packed in boxes ready for the long drive to Andover where the shipper is located 

yes I look drunk probably the fumes ,, any on to a brighter note the backpackers oven arrived from the states courtesy of Glenn and we have had a try out ,it is brilliants, packs up real small and we are now able to have fresh home baked bread steak and kidney pies , scones and lots of other nice things , so here it is 

It just sits on the burner on the cooker , probably have to find a way of tying it down and bobs your uncle , when you have finished with it it folds away in seconds it is fantastiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiic .

one final thing is David and I have got new spin lock life jackets, and you may remember I got the life raft from Morton boats  , it will strap onto the boat just in front of the mast , like the old one did 

we are off to the shippers first thing Monday morning so the stuff all gets to the boat in Olhao when we go down at the beginning of March , to relaunch and just finish some odd jobs , In the next issue I will tell you about a new video camera I have got just for the trip, There will be plenty of footage that's for sure , so till next time