So after two long hard days of servicing, antifouling and waxing the boat – I thought it was time to find out what the “Scooby Snack” on the menu at the Chart Room looked like. So here it is – and as a lifelong fan of Scooby Doo – I have to say that they did it justice! Scooby Dooby DOOOoooooooo!!!

Shaggy and I took  a van-full of gear to Calypso at the weekend and not only did we spend hours  on servicing etc. in beautiful weather, we also spent hours taking everything out of lockers and reorganising. Stuff that we wouldn’t use much was assigned to the darkest recesses and things to be used regularly or in an emergency kept close at hand.

Boat builders have developed the art of creating and secreting dozens of little pockets of space, and given the enormous amount of gear in a limited space, we need to use all of them to the full. Searching for something in a few months time would not be fun so we also wrote down where everything is, and we WILL maintain the discipline of updating the book EVERY time we extract or add something to a hidy-hole – won’t we Shaggy?

I doubt that will be the final reorganisation – especially as we have another van load going up next weekend! The garage (third cabin) is proving essential – so we’re very pleased we didn’t go for the 2 cabin version with its enormous “owner’s” cabin and limited stowage. That might be good for weekend use, but not for living aboard.

Continuing the old cartoon theme – we did a very good impression of the Wombles of Wimbledon Common – actually humming the tune as we slunk around the bins and skips in the boatyard! Our target was to try and find used large (20 litre) oil containers for the fuel polishing/tank cleaning project, and we succeeded. We needed 4 or 5 to empty the tank which is half full, and found 4 plus a 10 litre one. That will save us many tens of pounds on buying jerry cans which we would have discarded after use, so thanks, Wombles, for the inspiration.

We also found a nearly new caravan step – which will be a great help to Shorty when getting on and off the boat. And we even…………….(no, I’ll stop there, it gets embarrassing!)

On the technical front – because a river runs through Kip and the water is brackish, fouling is not a big problem (barnacles, weed etc growing on the underwater sections of the boat) and growth has been very limited – a bit of slime and a few barnacles, but very little to speak of.

In the past we have applied (annually) a single coat of Micron Extra 2, Trilux on the saildrive and applied a high Brasso shine on the prop. (with velvet flapwheel on the angle grinder). This year, as we will be venturing away from Kip, we have applied an extra litre of Micron and are experimenting with a product called “Prop-Shield” on the propeller.

Prop Shield is a waxy substance that keeps away barnacles/tubeworms etc.. To apply we had to warm the prop with a blowtorch, melt the wax in a pan of boiling water; firstly polish it on with a cloth and then paint on. The finish was a bit rougher than I expected – it was cold and I should perhaps have thinned with white spirit (suggested for cold conditions – RTFI idiot!!) We will post the result at the end of the season.

The excitement is mounting but there is still much to be done!