With work (yes, the ‘day job’!) looming on Monday and no chance of a fifth week full-time on Fly, I’m not going to get the forecabin fully stripped this holidays, but it’s getting there… (more…)
12 August 2017
8 August 2017
Destruction for construction
So we arrive at a major turning point for Fly, or what would be the turning point but for the late discovery of rot in the bow well. In a nutshell, the long-awaited last of the destruction (bar some new bow well preparation, which should be a much smaller job) before we start constructing again! (more…)
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5 August 2017
Not well in the bow well
So I spoke too soon when I said on Wednesday ‘who knows where I’m going to find another 100 hours to strip back the forecabin, but at least that’s not holding up any comparable repair work.’ Because yesterday I set about stripping the remaining old linings from heads and forecabin so I could get going on the glue and paint beneath, and was actually quite enjoying that till the unwelcome discovery of rot in the floor and aft wall of the bow well, which are plywood and going to need a similar repair to the main bunk tops. (more…)
3 August 2017
Stripping slime
Yesterday, as well as ‘finishing’ the paint stripping job in Fly’s main cabin, I took the pressure washer to her decks and topsides… not for a really thorough clean when she keeps getting filthy sitting there long-term (already been cleaned several times during this lay-up period!) and the time for proper cleaning and (where appropriate) polishing is after the winter, but still looking and feeling much the better for it (compare 2015/16’s window aperture and window fitting photos). (more…)
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2 August 2017
Stripping paint
Fly’s plywood main bunk tops were always problematic, and I know I’ve repaired the port one at least four times because I sent an email (subject line ‘Deja vu’) with photos to Twig Olsen and my dad in June 2003 saying ‘This is the fourth time I’ve tried to patch up this bunk top and I swear it’s the last!’ So, despite the discovery of the major water damage that finally finished them off in 2009 being initially devastating, something was going to need doing sometime anyway when they’re part of the boat’s structure. (more…)
26 June 2017
No going back
Some people will say they’ve heard it all before. But let’s look at the (sarcasm alert!) packed totality of my ultra racing career since the 2011 West Highland Way Race PB that saw me write ‘I’m done with competing in this race and comfortable with that where I wasn’t last time’… (more…)
4 June 2017
Hail, thunder and unfazed deer
I was looking for a long trail run yesterday and nearly went for a double Lairig Mòr thinking I could probably squeeze that out to 30 miles by running right into town rather than stopping at the Leisure Centre. But then I thought of something more interesting… (more…)
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30 May 2017
Six years slower in remembered shoes
Last Monday (22 May) my after-school plans needed some rethinking when I drove over the hill from Strontian to Polloch, got changed for a run up the side of Loch Shiel, then discovered I’d forgotten my shoes! So that run had been doomed from the moment I’d left home at 7:25am and, even as I’d looked forward to it (despite the rain) through a school day some miles and a ferry crossing from home, my shoes were sitting smugly on the kitchen floor waiting to greet me where I’d taken them off the previous day. (more…)
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28 May 2017
Head, hand(s) and heart
Let’s get mushy for a moment… I bashed my head and fractured a metacarpal in my hand, but supported Alicia Hudelson’s Ramsay Round with my (undamaged) heart! I could have been doing a longer, flatter trail run than the 23 miles I contributed to the cause, but it’s what I wanted to do and I’m proud to have helped her achieve that cherished goal and become no.100 on Charlie’s list. (more…)
21 May 2017
Betwixt and between
Now here’s a tale of clag-enveloped peaks, complex terrain, contact lenses and the absence of reading glasses or lens-on-a-string combining to lead me astray and seek consolation/justification in a statement of the blindingly obvious. Which is quite simply that you’ll go wrong if you can’t see what you need to see (in this case not just the hills but the map and GPS as well)! (more…)
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