Back to the island again! This time the focus was on making some progress on the roof.
Of the four of us that went over three were first-time visitors, it’s always great to see the island through new eyes.
There was plenty of coming and going as two of the lads were on a mission to explore one of the other islands. This required plenty of strategising with the tide.
What this really means is that when mooring the boat thought needs to be given to when it will be needed next. Often this means moving it to a lower spot so that it will be afloat earlier in the rising tide.
This is the setup (photo on the left) that I use to moor the boat in that situation. I attach a loop of rope through the end of the anchor chain, this allows me to pull the boat in when the tide as risen.
As soon as we arrived we got stuck into removing the tiles from the next section of roof. The concrete tiles were heavy and the underside had been parged, meaning it had been given a thick coat of mortar to make it more waterproof. If it wasn’t for the rotten battens the roof would still be very solid. It took a good belt with the hammer to shift the tiles.
With the tiles off the next step was to add batten and counter-battens, for the most part we have been able to retain the original rafters. The photo on the right shows the southside of the house which we are covering in clear corrugated. So no membrane on that side.
This is what we managed to get done. Good progress, especially considering that we only really got one full day of work (two half days as we didn’t get started until around 2pm each day) with two people. For the first time I feel that the end is in sight…
The tractors of Canon Island. On the way home we called into the south end of Canon Island. It was great to visit an island I’d never been to before. It was only a brief stop but I will be back. Plenty of exploring to be done once the roof is finished!
One of the most striking aspects of visiting these islands is how quickly nature takes back over. In a matter of years, it envelopes whole buildings and within a few decades can completely destroy them.