A bit of shine

Yes it's a bit of a plug but I would never do this unless I thought it deserved it.
It's usually a really hard job cleaning the hull of Serenity II but what makes it worse is that she's white and you can see every single mark but after a bit of research on the net I can across Chine Shine.
I not really into all this fancy stuff as I believe in a bit of elbow grease and a bit of hard work does the trick, but this stuff has blown me away. It's a bit like runny glue and you roller it on, leave it for 15 minutes and then just wash it off.

I could not believe the results and when my brother arrived he was lost for words and if you know my brother at all then that say's something.

Yes I know this is not keeping you all up to date but for anyone who has anything in white fibre glass then this stuff is worth looking into.

Here are the results and new Serenity II looks like new again.

Close up of the brown coming through and the hull looking tarnished. 

 Her bow before Chine Shine

 Her bow after Chine Shine

 

The Sand Dunes

Someone asked me on Facebook the other day about the sand dunes on the north beach so I thought I would do a quick post and show you all the damage from the tidal surge.

The dunes have been mostly affected by the seas and they will recover eventually even though it's not nice to see at the moment. At least this is the only thing that has happened as it could have been a lot worse. I suppose its nature but its not half cruel at times. 

I have taken a few pictures of my kids to give you an idea on how much the dunes have been cut away. They thought it was great as they could jump of plus they found some treasure. Junk in other words. We also found dead seal which was very smelly and a little bit to decomposed to have died because of the storm, but never nice to see. We did see one alive and healthy as it quickly rushed back into the water as we got closer.

Ok everyone, here are a few pictures which will show you a lot better than I can tell you.

Seahouses Tidal Surge

Yep you guessed it, the tidal surge happened on Friday 13th and you wonder why boating people are very superstitious. My dad was really bad, but once you start talking to other fisherman you realise he was not a bad as I first thought.
When he was a fisherman you were not allowed to lots of things. For example you were not allowed to whistle as you were whistling for the wind. Remember "Swan Vesta" matches well for some reason they were not allowed on the boat but please don't ask me why as I don't have a clue.

Some things he was superstitious about rubbed of on me and Friday13th was on of them. I'm just very wary of the date and I still go to sea but I'm just a little bit more careful in everything I do. My dad never went to sea on the 13th when he was a trawler fisherman and he never ever said 13 either. It was always 12 plus 1 or bakers dozen. My brother sometimes says the same and he's a lot more superstitious than me. I only have a couple of things that worry me and that's the Friday 13th and I always go forward with my boat at the start of the day even if it's really tight to another boat and the reason I do this is because if I go backwards I will be going backwards all day. Silly, I know but that's not bad for a boating person.

Never mind I'm getting away from what I was supposed to be blogging about.

On Friday 13th we had a storm surge down the east coast and it tends to start around our area and then head down the coast. This is just a combination of big tides, strong winds, wrong direction and a low laying coastline.

We are lucky compared to other parts of the coast but it still gets your heart pumping.

My major concern is our boats on the pier and you will see what I mean from the pictures further in the blog.
When the waves come over the pier they are so powerful that they can knock out the chocks of wood from under the boat. If they knocked them all out the boat would just fall over and do a lot of damage which is not good at all. Luckily only a few were knocked out and I was able to put them back in until it was all over. Some other people were putting their chocks back in then another wave would come over and knock them back out again.
Until the tide starts to goes out, this is all you can do and hopefully everything will be ok after the storm passes. Thankfully everything was ok and all the boats were safe and sound.

Then next day you can see all the rubbish everywhere and the beach was covered in wood, seaweed, plastic and of course the dunes were sliced apart from the waves. I know mother nature can be cruel and I know the dunes will recover in time but its not nice to see and at least we have not had any major problems to worry about.

Thank you taking time to read this blog and if you have any questions at all please just ask.

Out with the old and in with the new

As you may remember in a previous post I told you about Serenity being sold to the south coast, well we have decided to sell Sovereign II aswell. She was our late fathers boat and we did not want to sell her due to sentimental reasons but that really did not make sense so we have decided to let her go. It breaks our hearts but it's for the best and we have to move with the times too.
So on that note we could not help ourselves and she was to good to turn down so we have added another vessel to our fleet.
She is a yellow catamaran the same as Mara Mhor and she will be used for passengers as well as divers.
She is a little bit different to as she has a little bit extra built onto the back on the wheelhouse which will be great for passengers and divers as you can get shelter out of the wind but still be able to see what's happening around you.
She also is equipped with a toilet and storage too. We have a little bit of work to do to her but it's more tlc than anything.
We have to fit dive lift onto her stern but that's the only real major job to do and fingers crossed she is ready to go.

It was amazing how these guys handled the vessels on the roads but I suppose they are used to it and never batter an eye lid. Anyway she arrived safe and sound and now she sits on the habour pier waiting for the season to start.