Thursday 17th November

Beautiful warm weather yesterday for the last of Sally Ward’s instruction rows on St John. Thank you again Sally. The opportunity for a row proved popular and two shifts went out onto the inlet in the morning while I took my own boat out of the water for some much needed TLC.

A perfect morning.
Getting organised.
And they’re away.

Back in the shed today it was raining outside when Paul and I arrived. Paul tackled the task of putting the sleeves and buttons on the next set of oars which all had a wider shaft diameter than the new sleeves so he resorted to using the old sleeves for now.

Moving the old sleeves to St Ayles Skiff requirements.

I was masking up the paintwork for the colour stripe on boat 2 while JP cleaned up the rowlocks. JP nipped out for chocolate digestives, ginger nuts and more tea bags before morning tea.

After tea break I started painting the blue stripe on the second plank after having a chat about whether a yellow highlight line should be added above or below the blue. My wife, JB, stuck her head in and stated that it should be a thin line above and below the blue.

Blue stripe going on.

Paul also masked up the oar blades so that I could paint the stripes on them to denote their position in the boat.

The oars will still be workable with the old sleeves and buttons.
We all liked the Pacific Blue from Norglass.

At this rate we should be turning boat 2 over again next week.

Cheers Dave