Derusting the gas locker and well deck

I was just about to start on the day's jobs when Andy and Sue on Spring Water went past. I hailed them and they stopped for coffee, which turned into lunch. It was great to see them and I think they enjoyed seeing us too.

During their visit another boat I knew went past. This time it was Darley, with both Blossom and Dawn on board.

I called out to Blossom and he responded with a friendly wave.

This afternoon, then, I removed everything from the gas locker and wire brushed the rusty bits, mainly on the bottom. I had originally expected to have to somehow contort myself into the small space, but it was easy enough to do reaching in through the hatch. Then I sloshed some water in and used a washing up brush to eject most of the excess through the handily positioned drain holes. This done, I poured some Fertan into the bottom section of a four-pint plastic milk container and painted it on. This was a very quick job with a 3" brush, but I did have to pull my head out of the hole a few times so the fumes didn't get to me too much.

This is what it looked like after the treatment.

Now I have to leave it for a day or so before dusting off and painting. (I'll have to stoke up the fire or we won't be able to make tea!)

Then the job I'd been putting off. The well deck. I dreaded taking up the "Versatile" deck covering with its little plastic feet keeping the surface you walk on a few millimetres above the deck. First I had to remove the various bits of accumulated stuff, ranging from the heavy - full 25 Kg coal bags - to the light - 2p coins to open the water filler with, plus a lot of bits of wood, plastic and iron. Then the Versatile matting came up. Underneath was quite as bad as I had feared. The tiles' little feet had worn through the paint covering the well deck and made little rust spots.

Like this.

These rust spots had, for the most part, joined up to create large areas of thick corrosion. I knew I'd be wasting my time with a wire brush - and wasting the wires of the wire brush - so I used a spade to scrape away at the flaky paint and flaky rust.

After a lot of noisy scraping and less noisy (but dustier) brushing I had the well deck in a state ready for its first treatment of Fertan. More water sloshing (the Fertan instructions say the area to be treated should be dampened), more use of the washing up brush and it was time to paint on the brown smelly liquid.

And here's the result.

You can see how little of the original paint on the deck is left. If it's another fine warm day tomorrow I might just do the painting slightly before the recommended 24 hours is up, especially where the gas locker is concerned (we need to be able to cook). And I hope it will then pass muster in the eyes of the BSS examiner when the time comes.