The fool has a joke that is starting to become a reality. The joke is that you need the same colour paint remover as the colour of the paint that you are trying to remove. Not very funny but it is code for colliding with painted items and needing to remove the mark.
This season has been an unmitigated success with regards to him keeping me off the bottom. He hasn't run me into the mud once. However, almost every standard Trinity House colour of paint remover has been needed. Green paint remover was required after running into a fairway channel mark in the Crouch. The day was ideal, a fair South Westerly wind was taking us back to Bridgemarsh and there was an almighty crunch that shook the me to the core. He was convinced that the motor boat to port caught it on a camera, they must have seen the situation developing. So far no sign of it in any of the main sites like you tube!
The worst collision involved a boat in a marina. The colour was maroon but red paint remover would have solved the problem. He grovelled and apologised to the owner when he met him. The other boat owner was very forgiving and he learnt a valuable lesson. Don't try and moor up on my own with a strong off shore wind!
Yellow paint remover was required this weekend, on Friday he managed to sail us up to Battlesbridge on a rising tide in the pouring rain. Sail came down and engine went on at the final bend before the basin. A neatly executed 180 turn and a stooge about in the basin until the owner of Hazel May came up on deck to make sure that we weren't about to moor up alongside. Then we motored back to the river moorings off N. Fambridge. As there was no wind in the morning he decided to set off before it was light and get back to Bridgemarsh before the tide ran out. We hit Short Pole Reach as we drifted down the river. A minor glancing blow but it did leave a little yellow mark on my bow.
So paint remover is code for a cock-up involving embarrassing coloured mark on my hull. Let's hope he doesn't need any more paint remover!
This blog is the random accounts of a much loved and used Macwester Rowan on the East Coast of the UK from the perspective of Chantilly, the boat. Veneer and Varnish would also have been a suitable title for this 'account' of my life as a small boat living on the East Coast.
