For the past week or so I've been working Tropical Routine on the boat, a few hours in the morning then hide from the sun until late afternoon before putting a few more hours in aboard.
Even then I had to rig a sunshade...Well it was an Umbrella really, and it took off in the only gust of breeze all day and landed alongside in the mud at low tide..Fixed that by lashing it to a support...
Between trips to the woods I've been fitting the boat out for a river camping trip. I could just crash out in a sleeping bag on the bottom boards, stretched out with my legs under the centre Thwart (seat), but it's a bit of an unnecessary struggle when with a little bit of work and juggling there was an easier alternative.
By lifting one section of bottom boards, or grating in this case, and laying it supported by a length of 50 mm x 35mm as a cross beam and adding a piece of 10mm ply for the head end I got 6 feet + to use as a bed space.
Heavy duty camping mattress, not the sort of thing to back pack but it works well on boats, or in the van.
And an old Eastern bloc military surplus bedroll, Romanian? Also good when teamed up with the mattress.
Old interior photo of my home made tent, but the new version is very similar and gives great cover and sitting headroom.
Plenty of other jobs, fitted the manual bilge pump which was a bit of a puzzle where to locate it. I'm always singlehanded, so I need to be able to steer, handle the sheets and pump at the same time in an emergency, so the pump ended up on it's side against the after end of the midship thwart.
Not wanting to cut a hole in the boat's side I've left it so that I can hang the discharge hose over the side if I need to pump water out of the boat.
Working the Tides I occasionally got visits from some pretty big Mullet, hoovering up the bottom mud and occasionally making sucking noises against the side of the boat when they fed off the weed growth.
Treated myself to a new pair of Oars which I've spent some time finishing as they came just varnished. I've painted the Blades, bound the Looms with some Paracord to protect them in the Galvanised Rowlocks and hid the raw ends with Turks heads in some old plaited stuff I had left over from a rigging job.
Just a few tidy up jobs left to do now. Smarten up the bilge pump backing board, and find a pipe clip to secure the hose up under the thwart and perhaps cut the sharp corner off the ply head board, although the whole bed rig is demountable in about a minute anyway as obviously it stows away when sailing.
That's it for now, I've got a woodland trip to report but my typing finger...just the one..is tired.....
Even then I had to rig a sunshade...Well it was an Umbrella really, and it took off in the only gust of breeze all day and landed alongside in the mud at low tide..Fixed that by lashing it to a support...
Between trips to the woods I've been fitting the boat out for a river camping trip. I could just crash out in a sleeping bag on the bottom boards, stretched out with my legs under the centre Thwart (seat), but it's a bit of an unnecessary struggle when with a little bit of work and juggling there was an easier alternative.
By lifting one section of bottom boards, or grating in this case, and laying it supported by a length of 50 mm x 35mm as a cross beam and adding a piece of 10mm ply for the head end I got 6 feet + to use as a bed space.
Heavy duty camping mattress, not the sort of thing to back pack but it works well on boats, or in the van.
And an old Eastern bloc military surplus bedroll, Romanian? Also good when teamed up with the mattress.
Old interior photo of my home made tent, but the new version is very similar and gives great cover and sitting headroom.
Plenty of other jobs, fitted the manual bilge pump which was a bit of a puzzle where to locate it. I'm always singlehanded, so I need to be able to steer, handle the sheets and pump at the same time in an emergency, so the pump ended up on it's side against the after end of the midship thwart.
Not wanting to cut a hole in the boat's side I've left it so that I can hang the discharge hose over the side if I need to pump water out of the boat.
Working the Tides I occasionally got visits from some pretty big Mullet, hoovering up the bottom mud and occasionally making sucking noises against the side of the boat when they fed off the weed growth.
Treated myself to a new pair of Oars which I've spent some time finishing as they came just varnished. I've painted the Blades, bound the Looms with some Paracord to protect them in the Galvanised Rowlocks and hid the raw ends with Turks heads in some old plaited stuff I had left over from a rigging job.
Just a few tidy up jobs left to do now. Smarten up the bilge pump backing board, and find a pipe clip to secure the hose up under the thwart and perhaps cut the sharp corner off the ply head board, although the whole bed rig is demountable in about a minute anyway as obviously it stows away when sailing.
That's it for now, I've got a woodland trip to report but my typing finger...just the one..is tired..
...
