So I like sanding – yes, this makes me weird.

Now that we’ve finished scraping the bottom of the boat, it’s time to turn our attention to sanding. Scraping doesn’t get rid of all of the paint, and before we put the barrier coat on the bottom needs to be paint free – down to the gelcoat.

We only had one sander, so initially Jeff gamely sanded on his own while I worked inside the boat. The inside of the VHF cabinet needed to be cleaned, along with the area where the Origo is inserted, so I broke out our trusty Clorox Clean-up and got to work. I was very pleased with the difference in the VHF cabinet (“before” is on the left”):

Before

After

I also started working on wiring diagrams for our 12 volt electrical system. We still are complete novices when it comes to all things electric, but bit-by-bit we’re learning.

It was clear after a few trips to Shenny that we needed to get another sander if we wanted to be finished any time in the near future, so after the obligatory trip to Home Depot we were back at Shenny last weekend ready to get back at it. This was going to be my first time sanding, so Jeff showed me the ropes and we got to it. Continue reading “So I like sanding – yes, this makes me weird.” →

A small example of why every boat project takes longer than anticipated.

With sanding off of the table because of high winds this past weekend, it was a good time to take care of some miscellaneous items on the boat.

First up was removing the remaining chainplates. We had pulled three a few weeks previously, but we wanted to get the last four before the boat was shrink-wrapped for the season. It was a bit dismaying to see how easily the bolts turned – I almost didn’t need the socket wrench to get them started. Continue reading “A small example of why every boat project takes longer than anticipated.” →

So it took a bit longer than Thanksgiving weekend.

I haven’t been posting much because really, how many times can I post about scraping? But this is a celebratory post, because as of Saturday, December 12th, the scraping was done!

I have no idea what I was smoking when I thought that we would be finished scraping by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe I was in denial. Whatever it was, it was clear by the Friday after Thanksgiving that it wasn’t going to happen. Even if that Saturday hadn’t been a rain day, we still wouldn’t have finished. However, we did make some progress by the end of that weekend, and by the following Saturday we were VERY close to completion:

IMG_20151205_141309109_HDR (1) — **One side is completely finished!**

Honestly, we could have finished on Sunday the 6th, but I went on strike. I had blisters on my hands from the day before, and I decided that one weekend day off from physical labor was completely reasonable.

Continue reading “So it took a bit longer than Thanksgiving weekend.” →

Scrape, scrape, scrape…

Scrape, scrape, scrape…scrape your bo-at, scrape your bo-at. Yes, “Shake Your Booty” by KC & the Sunshine Band has been running through my brain when I think about this project. No need to thank me for the ear worm.

The last few weekends have seen slow progress on our latest project of scraping the bottom. It’s not that it has been particularly time-consuming. It’s just that intervening circumstances have dictated that we only put in a few hours each weekend.

Continue reading “Scrape, scrape, scrape…” →

This is not going to be one of our favorite projects.

Saturday, October 31st found us at Shenny helping with the club’s fall clean-up. Our plan was to come back the next day to keep working on the boat. Unfortunately, I made the foolish mistake of thinking that I could hang with the guys and decided to help with dismantling “E” dock. After toting many carts filled with heavy copper wire and bending over countless times to drill out hundreds of screws, Sunday, November 1st found me laid up with a sore left hamstring. If I had been a horse, I would have been taken out and shot. Needless to say, we did not go down to the boat that day, but by Saturday, November 7th we were back and ready to get to work.

Continue reading “This is not going to be one of our favorite projects.” →

What? No rebedding all weekend? A nice change of pace.

Our goal this past weekend was to install the last cleat and the bow and stern pulpits. Since this would officially mark the end of this off-season’s rebedding project, we were excited to get to it.

We thought that the bow pulpit would be a challenge because it “sprang” out when we removed it, but fortunately the whole project went fairly smoothly. Rebedding the stern pulpit and the cleat meant that I had to climb back into “The Pit of Despair” (yes, it’s a Princess Bride reference), aka the rear lazarette, but it was a price I was glad to pay to finally finish rebedding for the season. A few quick hours later, we were done. Hooray!

With the rebedding finished for this year, we were able to enthusiastically turn our attention to new projects. Tracing and removing abandoned wiring sounded good, so Jeff got started removing most of the wiring for the shore power.

Continue reading “What? No rebedding all weekend? A nice change of pace.” →

Well, we can’t avoid the inevitable – it’s time to winterize.

As a native Southern Californian, I despise winter. I used to tolerate it, but these last two winters have pushed me over the edge. I’ve told Jeff that when we finally slip the lines and head out, I want our cruising grounds to be so warm that when it drops to 70 degrees I’m reaching for a sweater. Jeff, a native of Rochester, NY, doesn’t hate winter like I do but even he’s getting to the point where he’s had enough. Until we leave, however, we need to deal with Mother Nature’s annual months-long interruption of lovely warm days and nights.

With low temperatures this past weekend expected to drop down to the high 20’s, it was no longer possible to deny reality: cold weather is coming soon. It was time to winterize. For us, this meant that we needed to change Pegu Club’s oil and run antifreeze through the engine, top off the fuel tank with diesel and add biocide, and empty the water tanks. Keeping the hot water heater and pressure water system would have added a few steps, but since we didn’t want those features this was also going to be the weekend to get rid of them.

Continue reading “Well, we can’t avoid the inevitable – it’s time to winterize.” →

Maybe I’ll join the circus in my next life.

Columbus Day weekend was a three-day weekend for us, so we hoped to finish rebedding the cleats and the pulpits by the end of Monday. Eventually we will be rebedding everything on the boat, but the rest will wait for another offseason.

We were treated to spectacular weather for all three days, and I’ll admit that on more than a few occasions we found ourselves gazing longingly out on Fishers Island Sound, watching the sailboats and wishing we were among them. Our friends Tom and Arlene had invited us for a ride on their motor boat a few weekends ago, and being on the water again really made us miss it. Oh well. We’ll have plenty of adventures next season. In the meantime, we needed to focus.

Continue reading “Maybe I’ll join the circus in my next life.” →

Three more stanchion bases complete.

The weekend of September 26th found us back at the boat for more rebedding. I had hoped that by the end of Sunday we would be finished with everything but the stern pulpit and cleats, but alas, it was not to be.

Everything we’ve read said to use duct tape on the underside of the holes that are being repotted with epoxy. The duct tape is supposed to keep the epoxy from running straight through. However, I think it works better if the holes aren’t right next to the hull-deck joint bolts with a healthy dose of sealant smeared around the area. We didn’t want to remove too much of the existing sealant, so we did the best we could on Saturday. Jeff kept pressing on the duct tape, and I kept refilling the holes. It seemed like a losing battle, and when we returned on Sunday we discovered we were right. We had several holes for the bow pulpit and the “gate” stanchions that were only partially filled. Oh well. At least there was a bit of a plug that we could work with.

Continue reading “Three more stanchion bases complete.” →

A big project finally crossed off the list – and on to the next one.

The weekend of September 12th was fairly low-key. Jeff had pointed out that we needed to build in some occasional down time where we simply stayed home. It’s easy for me to get hyper-focused and go-go-go, so I knew that he was right. As a result, we decided that we would go to the boat on Saturday only.

Saturday the 12th found us at Shenny bright and early to help remove the sailing school boats for the season. Many hands made light work, so next it was off to Defender and Home Depot for our weekly visits. Once we were back, Jeff sanded the four fiberglass patches and filled and faired them. All that was left to do was to put a few layers of epoxy resin on each patch and this big project would be finished! We needed to wait for the filler to cure before adding the resin, so it wasn’t going to be officially finished until the following weekend, but it still felt good.

Continue reading “A big project finally crossed off the list – and on to the next one.” →