How my life has changed in the course of a week.

It is amazing how your life can change in a matter of days and your view on life can change and your priorities  shift. 

This time, last week I had a quiet Saturday after a busy week at work doing a number of jobs on my clients boats over the course of the week and was looking forward to a quiet weekend at home with the family and planning our next trip up to Chance to continue with her restoration.  Over the month or so my family with the help of my brother John had been getting on well with dismantling the furniture on the inside of Chance. Having cleaned much of the aft cabin and forecabin back to the hull  apart from the main bulkheads between the cabins which keep Chance in her correct shape. 

Much of the galley area had also been removed and so had much of the aft heads and the engineering room. Also 3/4 of the internal pig iron ballast had been removed at this point in time. 

This left just the remains of the locker in the galley area and the small amount cabinet work in the aft heads to remove then make a start on the  main saloon. This would leave the cockpit to do. This being the biggest challenge, the removal of the engines and the tankage in the engine compartment under the wheelhouse floor. 

Then life took a curve ball. Last Sunday night life was turned upside down in a way I did not see coming.  I felt a little under the weather thinking it was just that I had push myself a bit during the previous week. Little did I know that the next few hours that I was going to go into my local area general hospital for emergency surgery  for a strangulated hernia.    Because of my age and other health issues the surgeon laid it out on the line. If I do not operate on you now in the next few hours you will die as you will die of blood poisoning. However, because of you underlaying heath issues you have a 50/50 chance of coming through the surgery. 

So I took the way that gave me the only option to  survive. Thankfully I am still here to be writing this blog to you my patrons. It is good to be alive and still in the game, however with a different view on life and work  in general. 

In the weeks to come it is going to be a time of re-evaluating life's priorities and offloading the rubbish around ones self's especially at work and making plans for the future. 

The main plan is to clear as much of the work in my yard as possible by employing boat builders to get the jobs in hand down to a   manageable amount so that when I am back on my feet I can do more supervisor work until I can get back to a place where I feel able to get back to work. This is a the plan for my future. 

The restoration of  Chance will be put on hold for a couple of months while I sort out my  yard and workshop so that there is room for the boat to be back here in Essex. 

So over the next few weeks there is going to be a lot of planning on how to get the ball rolling and get get on my feet and get my yard up and running again.  

What a couple of days I have had crisscrossing the country from south to north and east to west

  What a day, today has been travelling across the country from one side to the other side. Starting on the east side of the country and driving over the Pennines to the west coast. 

Yesterday after a very tiring day driving up the country from my home in the south east of the country in North East Essex. Because of a car crash on the one of the major north to south roads in the country I was using to get to my brother's home and the fact the crash was between the  two slip roads  I could use to take a different route to my brother's home. That Life,  Having had a good nights rest I set off to Chance to get a few things sorted and clean up round the boat.  Namely cover up the cooker and the toilet which were  not covered up properly when I had to leave last time because of the problems with my Transit van. The clutch problem which was to be repair this last week. It was repaired but then failed after a short while and now back to renting a car to keep working.  However, that is a story for another day when I am not so stressed. 

I did get to Chance this morning to find her in good order with the covers I put over her still in place and doing their job of keeping the rain and weather off the deck and keeping the inside of the cabins dry. So that next time I am up working on Chance the weather will not be a problem that will stop me and my family working on her interior. 

I will be posting a few short videos of the boat in the coming days to highlight what as to be done over the next few weeks and months. The three main areas to finish off are the toilet room and the main cabin cupboards and settee areas to expose the hull in these areas and finally the engine room / compartment which has to have the engines and tankage removed and disposed of and in this area it is going to be completed re-designed to bring it is line with modern requirements. 

Lets hope I get my Transit van back on the road soon and I can get on with my work on Chance and make a living doing my day job as a boat builder, which helps fund these early stages of Chances' restoration .   

Having a bad day,can back in the garage, so on to plan B

So what should have started as a return to normal, that is going to Chance to do some more work on her was turned up side down. So now to Plan B use the Garage's rental car to go up country to Chance. Not ideal but it got me back on the road and salvage something for the trip to Woodplumpton. So instead of doing a bit of work today. I will be doing the work tomorrow. Most of the work I will be doing is bring  back the parts that I can get the car and and storing boat parts that will have to wait until I get my van finally back on the road. Whenever, that might be. 

So what should have been a good couple of days work is now just going to be a days work followed by a drive home the same day. 

Hooray, getting my Transit Van back today

 After also most two weeks without my trusty Transit van being off the road with clutch problems, I can return to working on Chance once more and get on with removing more of the inside wood work and loading up the trailer with the old diesel cooker, sea toilet and the large bag of scrap metal and died batteries. Clean up and service the diesel cooker and then put it up for sale the same with the vintage Baby Blake seas toilet which  people have said some vintage boat owners wish to put in their boats. 

  This time I will hope to continue with the main cabin dismantling and work out how to remove the wheelhouse roof to get the engine out of the boat and on to a trailer to transport them back to my workshop to get cleaned up and put up for sale to any one who wishes to restore the engines for their own project.  

I also have to work out how to get the fuel and water tanks out and get prices for replacing them as they have been in the boat since she was build and by now will be in a very poor condition. Having being able to see one of the tanks from the engineering room it can be seen that there is a fair amount of rust on the tanks. Although they are not leaking at the moment it would not take a lot to see that they may soon do so in the near future. So while the engines are out it is as gooder time as any to  replace the metal tankage. Also to work out the pipe runs for the water system  and also the wiring runs through the boat. 

The rest of the starboard thwart support is finally in position

 The rest of the starboard thwart support rail is now glued in position and a epoxy fillet is put along the top edge against the hull to aid the laying of the fibreglass over the thwart support. The original port side rail is getting cleaned up so that can get an epoxy fillet run along the top edge along the hull side of the rail to do the same job as with the starboard side. 

Once the fibreglassing is done the aft seating area can get covered with marine plywood on the front faces and the tops will be removeable lids to use the area under the seats for storage of warps and fenders and any other items the boat will need. 

Then the engine bed irons will be bolted in position and the the fuel tank support beams and the small fore deck will be made after the deck beams are made out of hardwood battens.