A Life Afloat (Maybe)

Chapter 3

Sitting comfortably and enjoying the tea and biscuits, Pete asked how Alec's wife was doing, 'So! So!' said Alec, 'she has her good days and her bad days, sadly there seem to be more bad days than good days now, that's why I've not been working on the boat over the last few days'. 'Is there anything I can do to help', asked Pete surprising Alec by his offer, 'well, if it is not too much to ask, I could do with a bit of help to clean up the hull, it still needs scraping and sanding in places and then a good coat of varnish, a dirty hull slows the boat down so you need to give it a good cleaning every so often'. 'Fine', was Pete's instant reply, surprising himself with the speed of his response, 'show me what you want me to do, wind me up and set me on my way, it will be a pleasure to help you in any way that I can', 'Great', said a very happy Alec, 'if it's all right with you we can make a start in the morning, I've got a nurse who comes in twice a week to help me and tomorrow is one of her days'. With that, they arranged to meet at Alec's boat early in the morning and Pete discerning a little of the distress coming from Alec's wife decided it was time for him to leave Alec and his wife alone, so he took his leave and headed into the village to do a bit of shopping.

Pete could not wait for morning to come around, he felt that he was going to do something useful for a change. Rather than just mooch around all day drifting from one thing to another, he was to do something constructive with his time. Arriving at the boatyard earlier than he needed to, Pete wandered round the yard looking at all the other boats that were out of the water being worked on by their enthusiastic owners, with a beaming smile on his face he could not wait to get started in the totally new and somewhat exciting world that he was entering. Finally, to Pete's relief, Alec arrived warmly greeting him saying he was so pleased and relieved to get a little help with his boat, with a quirky smile Pete said, 'wait until you have seen my handiwork before you get too happy', Alec climbed up into the boat, opened a few lockers rummaging around and pulling out some tools, cloths and other bits and pieces which he placed in a canvas holdall and passed them all down to Pete. Being nosey, Pete opened the bag to see what was in there, all of it seemed familiar, scrapers, sanding blocks, coarse and fine sandpaper, gloves, cloths, some white spirit from the look and smell it, Alec climbed down to join him and again with that big beaming smile said 'come on then, it's time to start cleaning up the old girl', pointing out bits of what looked like seaweed, mud and other nasty things that should not be there, using one of the scrapers Alec started removing the muck saying that one should always work with the graining of the timber planking, never across it, that only damages the surface, with a big smile Alec handed Pete a similar tool suggesting that he started to help him clean up the hull timbers so that they could start to varnish the exposed surface as soon as possible, you could never trust the weather Alec said, the forecast was for dry and mild conditions. Working together in quiet but happy unison they started to scrape away the gathered grime of the river and sea, if you find any cracks or gouges let me know straight away Alec called over his shoulder, they will need special attention before we start the final gloss finish.

It seemed after no time at all but it was in fact a couple of hours, Alec suddenly and silently appeared at Pete's shoulder, with a big smile and laugh he complimented him on his work and with an even bigger smile and laugh he pointed out a couple of missed bits of grime, saying 'clean those up while I make a cup of tea so we can have a break'. Suitably chastised for his sloppy work, Pete apologised and went to work as requested, cleaning off the offending grime, while he was doing that Alec waiting for the kettle to boil walked round the boat a couple of times looking for any grime that had not been cleared from the wooden planking, pronouncing himself happy and as the kettle boiled he climbed back into the yacht, made the tea and invited Pete to join him in the boats' cockpit where the seating was a little more comfortable. They had been lucky Alec said, there had not been much to clear from the hull, the yacht had not been used very much this year, a few poodles up and down the river estuary, mainly because his wife did not enjoy sailing any more and no longer took any part, she just sat there looking lost and confused whenever she could be persuaded to join Alec on the yacht, that took away any pleasure that sailing gave to himself Alec said, really, the end of the world as they had known and enjoyed, there was simply no pleasure these days in sailing their boat, it was, Alec said, time for him to part with the boat he loved and move on to other things.

'So sad', muttered Pete to himself or so he thought but Alec had heard him and quietly agreed, it was sad that he had to give up sailing he said, 'as you enjoy it so much, why give up' asked Pete, why not teach me and I will crew for you, once more the words were out of his mouth before he realised what he had said. A hearty laugh came from Alec's throat, maybe I would if you really mean it, he chuckled, surprisingly Pete blurted out 'I do, I really do fancy it, it will be the change I need to put some zest and vigour back into my life'. Somewhat taken aback, Alec said that it was a good idea and would think about it, but they had better get back to work or they won't get the chance to go sailing, with both of them chuckling they climbed back to the ground and Alec showed him which parts of the hull had to be sanded down with the reminder of 'always go with the grain, never against it'. Seeing so little of the clean timber had been disturbed, the sanding down took no time at all. After fully inspecting all the work done and slightly sanding just a couple of spots Alec declared himself more than happy. This time, without the chuckle Alec said it was time to get down to the really serious part, varnishing the whole of the hull, here he said, we have to be really careful in the way we put down the layers of varnish, as it is a quick drying varnish, one has to be quick in application, thoughtful and careful in the process, how many coatings and where these coatings were applied will decide on how well the yacht slides through the water when under sail Alec told him, we have enough time today Alec continued, to put down enough varnish to protect the timbers should it rain overnight then we can call it a day as the light is fading, the falling temperature was not very good for varnish, it needed a bit of warmth to harden it, they would just have to trust to luck that they had timed it right Alec said showing Pete crossed fingers.

Not exactly rushing but moving quickly they finished the varnishing, cleaned the brushes and other tools that they had used, packed them away in the on-board lockers, made sure all was well with the yacht, descended to the ground and independently headed for their own homes, Alec on foot and Pete on his trusty old bike, both saying that they had had a very good day and were happy with the results. Agreeing to meet early in the morning, to continue their work on getting Alec's pride and joy ready to go back into the water.