June 2011

This is a very busy time for us as we are preparing to cruise up to the chantier (shipyard) and as we didn,t cruise last year, there's a ton of stuff to sort out.  We will be lifted out of the water - all 90 tons of us - so that the bottom  can be pressure-washed and repainted.  Before the painting can be done, our surveyor  will inspect the hull for thickness of the steel plates underneath.  There is a minimum requirement of 4mm thickness and any plates below that will have to be replaced. He will also compile a report on the barge for our insurance company.

All our barge poles were looking very tatty so I have been sanding and re-painting them today. Yesterday we hauled the dinghy out of the water - great strength required! and had to scrub down the underneath - full of algae and yucky stuff!  

But,  the view from our mooring is great....