be afraid, be very afraid..

If you're a female boater that is. And if you listen to the guy I met on a boat in central London today! Yes, I know I've posted about this before but I really do get a bit fed up with being told how I should live in fear, as I'm female and living on a boat. I was informed that a boat break-in was 'like a rape' for women and far more traumatic than for men.
I'm not quite sure how having a penis would save me from the apparent certainty of break-in and violent assault, unless I maybe used it to beat the assailant around the head with it.
Anyway, the unsolicited advice given by the boater was this: to put a pair of mens boots on my roof, to get bars welded over the windows and, most importantly,  to enrol on his martial arts course for women. All became clear. By playing on stereotypes and reinforcing fear and timidity in females, he can keep em coming to his classes.
I did wonder if his attitude might be based on many bad experiences on the cut but no, turns out he's been renting his boat for a short time only and is new to the life.

slow improvements

I'm fitting a smart new cratchboard and painting the front well deck. Things aren't going that smoothly though as I bought the wrong colour paint, initially fitted the board the wrong way round and am making a big mess of trying to repair the old torn cratch cover. The new board makes everything else look tatty! Still, I expect it'll all come together in the end once I've re-painted, fitted the porthole, mended the cover. I want to do the board that Simon made, justice.
Here's the work in progress...