Sailing a ship made of steel is a continuous battle against the process of corrosion. Although we have several sorts of stainless steel, there’s still plenty of material to cause frustrations. Busting, derusting with a wire brush or blade disc, priming twice and then finally painting. Well.. finally, painting also needs three layers.
      It feels like the corrosion appears before the last layer of paint is applied. While treating spots of corrosion, it is sometimes hard to determine which parts are painted if using the final color of paint from the start. On board we mix colors of paint to distinguish the first layers from the last.
      Our Bosun, Bart added a bit too much red paint to the white paint with the purpose explained before. The starboard stairway to the campaign deck now looks kind of Barby-like… and with the Bosun being a new crewmember this causes a lot of silly jokes….

Richard Slootweg
Captain Clipper Stad Amsterdam