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December 2004
Archive News
Turning the fish-hold turning the space into 3 luxury bedrooms. Yeah, right! Work has started but it's quite a hard slog. As the pictures show, we've got a lot of work on our hands. We're stripping the room back to the steel hull and then will work on the rust, get it painted and then put a floor down. Should be done by Christmas!
September 2004
It's time to prepare for winter and make sure the boiler and radiators are in good working order. We've also been working in our new bedroom in good time for winter. We should be ready to start foaming the walls and putting in the portholes soon. Once that's done it's all the woodwork (the fun bit) and the bed! It's been a while since we slept in a bedroom and it will seem strange after being on the bridge for so long.
August 2004
Spent lots of time dodging the rain and trying to chip and paint the side of the boat. We've decided that the full two-pac "see your face" painting of the boat has got to wait until we can sandblast it. In the meantime, we've been chipping and painting to prepare her for the winter so the rust doesn't completely take over. The steel is in surprisingly good condition. Have a look at our painting skills.
July 2004
After an 8 month layover, we started the main engine, yes I know it's a bit lax but parts of the engine room floor have been in pieces so we've not been able to run the engine for a bit. Justin prepared the engine yesterday by checking levels etc., and running the generator to charge the air start banks.
Today we waited for high tide and she started like a dream. It was an amazing feeling to hear the boat come alive after such a long time. It was like she was reminding us that her main role in life is to sail the oceans and not sit stuck in Hoo mud.
Justin ran her for an hour to make sure all her temperatures and pressures were running ok, little puff of white smoke out of the stack when she started. She's quiet compared to some of the boats around here and she didn't have the obligatory black cloud polluting the sky as most of the chuggers seem to do.
We went for a little sail in our dinghy earlier in the week to have a good look around Atlantis and to chance to take some snaps of her lines.
June 2004
The price of new steel is through the roof at the moment so we're waiting for the price to fall before we buy the new steel for the build on the back of the boat. It's a bit disappointing but at least we get to enjoy the big space for a while.
While we wait we're working on the first of the bedrooms and testing out our newly acquired product, Vactan, a rust inhibitor. We're testing it on the side of the boat and are working away with out chipping hammers and grinders to get her back to bare steel. She then gets a nice coat of Vactan to stop any new rust from coming through. Might use that on the car too!
We've also acquired a little dinghy and outboard so are taking trips around the area to get to know the creeks and islands that we hear so much about.
May 2004
Updating the diary can be hard sometimes; we get so wrapped up in what we're doing. So what is that? Well all the scrap metal from the A-frame and the winch have gone at last and we've got a nice empty back deck - and boy it's big. Some photos of the back deck will be coming soon. In the meantime, check out the removal of all the scrap and getting rid of that winch. All the scrap weighed in just a touch under 11 tons! That paid for the crane barge so we broke even.
April 2004
So........... MV Atlantis is no longer a trawler. Her distinctive looks are created partly by the A-Frame and that's nearly down now. There's been a lot of work the last couple of weeks and Justin has managed to get most of the A-Frame down.
Work on the winch has halted as we need to get the A-Frame down first. All the bolts have been removed, along with several fisherman's rib jumpers and lots of scallop shells!.
The weather is getting there - we're still getting cold days and drizzle - what else can you expect in England. We've had some great days though. Wendy is busy trying to capture life in Port Werburgh and do her David Bailey bit.
Working on boats is like waiting for a bus. All of a sudden everyone wants something off our boat. We've found someone else who will take all the scrap metal away; a by-product of freeing the winch and part of the master plan to take down the A-frame to lose that lovely "trawler" look.
It's hard work, not least because a lot of the cutting work means hanging off the side beams of the A-frame at an awkward angle. Not bad for someone who's not too fond of heights.
One of the very colourful characters who lives in the Marina has a friend who wants our winch. We've got until the next Spring tide to get the thing ready to move so work has moved on at a speedy pace.
It's finally Spring - the weather's starting to warm up, the clocks have gone forward so we're getting the lighter nights now. Time to spring into action (what a great pun!).
Pre-April 2004
Most of our time since we moved on in July 2003 has been spent taking old rubbish off to the tip, preparing heating for the winter and getting all our stuff on board. Work should start in earnest next Spring so watch this space! In the meantime, check out our Gallery. You can also find out more about how we got started on the About Us page.