Robin's Reports

CUDDY DOOR

It's been a few days and I need to bring you up to speed. We had a wonderful week vacationing with my parents. Jack also got a few things done on the boat in a short window of time.

I left of last post that we had painted on Monday. Much to our dismay, that paint didn't dry. Upon further investigating, it hit us that we never put hardener in the paint. We have 3 part paint. I don't understand all of it but we put paint, reducer and accelerator in the can and forgot the hardener. Seems like that should read 4-part paint then, but what do I know. I'm only the wife who like to do silly stuff while Jack is painting. Do you like my Fashion Week pose with the gas mask on. I don't care what you do, you can't look cute in a gas mask. (Jack's in the boat painting while I'm playing w/ the self-timer function.)

Jack went back over those spots and put something in the paint (maybe extra hardener?) that accelerated the process to 3 hrs of drying time (vs 7-9 hrs). Why had we not done this before? It would have saved us some work earlier. That was Wed morning.

Wed afternoon, we had a huge seafood festival in our own home with my parents and watched the shuttle launch. I'll save that for another post.

This morning, Jack was busy out there finishing the work to get the door back on the boat. The cuddy is the space in the center of a larger boat where one can go in to find refuge from weather, cook, sleep, use the bathroom, play the DVD, toys, draw, etc. We call it the Cuddy of Death only because while it seems like a good idea to be in there, it will make some of us very sick to feel the motion but to not see it.

So, we put in an order for a new cuddy door top. Our current plexiglass top is pink and getting small cracks from where it has weathered much sun and many hard bumps on the waves. We've decided to go with a smoked-colored plexiglass top. That should be done Monday.

Jack is on his way currently with taking the pulpit to a welding shop. It has 2 small cracks that need repairing before getting repainted and put back on the boat. We had several great recommendations to this place called BT Welding. One of Jack's friends owns TunaRude which is in the pictures. Anyhow, this is a MUST because it is my favorite place to sit while sight fishing. (click)

Also, Jack did some fiberglass strengthening to the back of the door and to the backside of the compass mount. Right now, there is just resin drying, but there will be a sheet of fiberglass added. Those hard waves really knock those joints apart.

The frame (right) goes around the plexiglass and the circular object is the wooden mount for the big compass. We don't really need the big compass given the advances in GPS, but it is part of the history of the boat and one should never be without a true compass in case of battery or satellite issues.

If you're new and just joining in our boat makeover, we started our makeover the first days of September. Click here to start from the beginning. 2007_09_01_archives

Happy Fishing,

Robin