Part 15

From Mary, here.

Some Assembly Required

This lot will form the nucleus of the electrical system for Misterton. I just need to figure out exactly how it all fits together.

IT geek friends (thats you Mat) will be pleased to know that all these boxes talk to each other via RJ12 and RJ45 cables. :)

Together, but apart

Mary and I just went up for the day on saturday this weekend, but thanks to longer daylight hours, still managed to do about 7 hours of work each. It was a little quieter than usual, as I was removing rubbish and rust from the front cabin, and Mary was doing the same at the rear, so we had about 65 feet of barge between us for most of the day. The front cabin still had a lot of rust an dirt in it, I took about 14-16 buckets of it out.

I think I'm getting near the end, hence looking pleased.

A bucket of rust scrapings, some dirty water and an old anchor chain. The Tate will be calling any day now......

Mary did sterling work at the rear of the boat, she regards the back cabin as 'hers' and has earmarked it as a girls room for watching chick-flicks and drinking G&Ts with friends.

The old stove will go, but we'll keep the front face as a decorative item in the cabin.

This is the new doorway to gain access. The old method was a hatch in the corner of the wheelhouse, but this will be more space efficient. The stairs from the wheelhouse will run down in front of this, but they will be hinged in such a way that they can be moved aside.

A more general view. Those white 'blobs' on the hull are in fact daylight. A bit more welding to be done methinks. :)

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

It sure seems like it anyway (yes, I used Google to get the full phrase...). We spent a few days over the bank holiday weekend working on Misterton, but it was a case of working hard, but things still looking pretty much the same. There is progress underneath the surface though, we finished painting bitumen on the frames under the floor, along with de-rusting and treating some remaining steel that will be sprayfoamed.

I took the opportunity to start laying the floor in the workshop area.

I also got Mary to take some pictures of possible locations for the lifebouys on the side of the wheelhouse.

I quite like the mottled effect of the wheelhouse paint, primer and rust converter, Mary is less keen.

More of the same next weekend.

One made earlier....

Last Saturday we were up with Mary's brother Steve, who had been working in Nottingham and took the opportunity to see Misterton for the first time. As soon as he stepped on board, I gave him a rust scraping device....

Ah, nothing like the gentle chipping of rust from frames in the bilge.

Moored just behind us for the weekend was 'Southcliffe' a Sheffield sized barge. The owner Chris showed us around and the interior was fantastic, very much had the sort of feel we'd like to create on Misterton. Southcliffe, like Misterton, had originally been built as a sailing barge, and was converted to motor in the 1940's. Chris has carefully re-constructed her sailing gear, and they were hoisting the sail for the first time that weekend.

I've read that the barges in this region were based on Viking longships, the Vikings being self-invited visitors to this part of the UK.

It certainly was an inspiring sight, and even in a light breeze, the ropes were straining holding her to the bank.

She looked amazing and it was great to see what hopefully all this hard work could lead to.