Lyra's Travels

Friday 5th October 2012
The weather around here has been very changeable this week. The rain has once again caused the gates to Clarence Dock to be shut so we're all trapped. Mike and Sally were due to take Bendigo to Castleford for work to be done, but unless the river abates quite a bit I don't think they'll make it.
Earlier this week Damon took me up to Arnold Laver, a timber merchant who stocks faced MDF where I bought a sheet of 19mm ash faced board and had it cut to size so that I can get on and replace some of the external door panels which have deteriorated over the years. I would have prefered ply, but it wasn't available.
Though the week I've been painting and varnishing. Painting the table which resides in our well deck, I made this table a few years ago and varnished it and now it's looking a bit tatty so I decided to sand it down and paint it. The first effort was a total failure! I hate painting, and I didn't sand it down enough and leaving some varnish on caused the paint not to take properly. After another really good session of sanding I tried again and this time with some success. The colour we chose was a light blue and it looks fine now.
I've started to varnish the new door panels, but won't be installing them yet, there's a lot more varnish to apply and I won't cut the old panels out until after Lyra has been dry docked to have her bottom done.
Speaking of which, if this weather doesn't improve soon we may not be able to get to Castleford to have the work done. Not looking forward to that possibility at all.