All Aboard! (Not)

All Aboard! (Not)

So it's all aboard the So What. If you consider squatting on a beached, wheel-less caravan as on a par with Ahab's adventures on the ocean wave. What happened was that myself and Joe got here to Roermond in time for our ugly duckling to be lifted out of the water, so that a surveyor could take a peek, with an eye to getting insurance for the old crate. So a giant german scoots in from across the border looking for 800 lids -under the table if you please- for a quick gander. This guy is on a winner amongst winners. So he has a look, but he starts raising sceptical eyebrows in my direction. and i know it's the boat that's at the root of it. Doesnae look good.

He needs the decades-old multiple layers of paint off the hull so he can do a proper check, and we're given the option of shelling out 1250 lids -you read that right- to have it sand-blasted. Christ on a bike. Luckily, the owner of the marina, who won't let us take angle grinders to the job -too much dust- has a couple of scrapers handy. He's all heart. Sherioushly. 50 years of paint on a 10 x 3.5 metre hull, and we're gonna evict with a couple of scrapers. Well I never.

By this time Dawn and Cherri have joined us. Dawn's full-on with a web design job, her client having given her a deadline of, like, yesterday, and Cherri's only on a quickie hol, her first away from household concerns (hubbie, kid) for ages. The sun has started beating down, Roermond's put on its finery, the bands have struck up in the town's squares, ye olde markets are up and running, so they take off for coffee and shopping (more power to their elbow).

Meanwhile... in dante's fourth circle of hell, a combination of will-to-power and child-like innocence mean that joe and myself set to with a half-hearted vengeance. It's tedious, sometimes armwrenching work, but that guy is an animal. I'm all whiny with, 'joe, i can't get into the right position', 'joe, how long's this gonna take', 'joe, are we there yet?' but he keeps on keepin on.

Takes a couple of days of scraping, and for my shower each night i take a kitchen scrubbing sponge with me, only way to get the gunk off. My eyes are shot to shit (we hadn't bothered with goggles -told you, childlike innocence), and i can't clean adequately around them, so i look mascaraed up. Silver lining i call it, very fetching.

When we're nearly down to the bare bones the marina owner eases up and we finish the job with angle grinders. German arthur daley surveyor guy scooters back to take a few snaps, render the verdict that it's not as bad as he thought it would be, and pocket his ridiculously easily gotten gains. Cause for celebration.

Don't These People Realise?

In other news, Dutch people very much appear to be the biz. Unfailingly friendly and usually the kind word. When we started angle grinding, I took the time out -anything rather than work- to walk over to a wrinkly old geezer sunbathing in his nappy nearby, to apologise for the noise. After a bit of halting English (him) and German (me) he tells me that he can't hear very well anyway. 'Good!' i exclaim. He knows what I mean.

Other examples, a couple who run a bimini workshop right beside us, and who observed us on the hot boat, were in the process of going to the trouble of writing us out a note to tell us we could sit in the shade at their table, when we came back and caught them in the act. The nerve.

And one from aways back, but which shouldnt go unmentioned. Last year when myself and Dawn were sailing down through Holland, we got a fuel leak so we had to stop in Tiel. Took us days to clean it out, and the boat was uninhabitable. Guess what the marina owner and his wife suggested to ill-kempt strangers who turn up on a rustbucket? We get the run of their pristine sailing boat for about five days. For gods sake, shouldnt someone tell these people that its a nasty, messed up world out there?

Also the marina owner and his wife here in Roermond. Bit of a combo of frosty formality and genuine warmheartedness. Problems been they're feverishly busy right now, so i've had to stalk him with any queries. I took to doing the De Nero meet-the-parents thing with him (behind his back), pointing at my eyes with two fingers, then pointing at him. Maybe it worked, as we had a good chat with them yesterday, and not only got the info we needed -welding and occupancy prices- but also got the rundown of their new boat. She's the houseproud one, already got her serviettes picked out to match the hull, he's the long-suffering vassal, but knows he's lucky to have her.

The Big Push

That's it for now. Joe and myself will be back in mid-june to do a shitload of stuff on so what, before she's ready to offer her holiday services. Gotta strip her out pre-welding, replace everything, paint top to bottom, install some handrails, cut open a hatch to the deck, upgrade the toilet and install a shower. Money money money, dreams dreams dreams.

Posted by Dara