Cold

Mary and I went up to Goole this weekend to see how things have been going with Misterton. We've not been up for four weeks due to weddings, looking after nephews etc. As it turns out, they hadn't been able to make much progress thanks to the weather. Too much rain, wind and cold to really get much done. I wasn't surprised, but was still a little disappointed as I had hoped we'd have been closer to getting the insulation done and therefore starting the interior. But its not for lack of trying on the boatbuilders part, they're as keen to get on as we are.

We lit the old stove and then went to the museum for a cup of coffee. We were their fourth visitors of the day....... Andy from the museum showed us around a couple of the barges they had, Sobriety, a Sheffield sized keel and the larger #58. Both of these barges are used by the museum for running classes, meetings etc.

After looking at these two finished articles, we went back to Misterton and looked at the cold empty interior. One day..... :)

We didn't get too much done on the sunday either, we were planning to treat some more rust, but it was too cold to use the paint. Mary took some pictures of the gloom.

Note in the last one the beginnings of a roof for the wheelhouse. This will be in three sections so its easier to dismantle if we meet a low bridge.

I'd found some portholes from an old Navy boat in the last few weeks, and I made good use of my nephew's free labour last weekend in getting them polished.  We marked out where they were to go on the cabin sides, so thats another little job to be done.

This all sounds a bit downbeat, but its not really. I'm just impatient, thats all. Thinking about it, this time last year we'd only seen a few barges and still weren't sure what we wanted to buy. I'd only seen a picture of Misterton, but had discounted her as she was too big. We've done a lot since then. :)