Robin's Reports

Our Weekend of Restoration

by Robin

I know that this isn't the most interesting blogging material for many folks but I have to see it as a means to the end - - namely, FISHING again!!! This was by far our sandiest weekend.

Jack got an hour or 2 off of work early on Wed. I stayed home from church with boys having low-grade fevers still. Jack changed clothes and went right to the garage for sanding the teak that goes on the left set of shelves of the Co-Captain's area (my shelves, if we're honest here).

Thursday, we busted out all the elbow grease we could muster for upteen hours. Jack sanded down the ruined paint on the gunnels while I did all the miscellaneous work inside. Those jobs included removing the anchor locker teak, hand sanding under cleats, removing step lights, removing back drains, securing protection over the exposed hatch areas (to protect from overspray paint) and hand sanding down the water trenches on each side of the cockpit (back fishing area ladies) area. That doesn't seem like it should take all day but it did. At the end of the day, it was all done & all ready-to-paint areas had been washed to remove dust. (pic: drain pulled out)

I do want to emphasize that hand sanding is no fun. I am so very thankful for all our power tools that do the majority of the work. I think I spent an hour on those water trenches. I'm sure they have better official names but those little 1" "trenches of pain" seems more appropriate. I used 80 grit sandpaper which not only removed old paint, exposed fiberglass cracks and whatever else (need a 3rd thing, don't you think?) but they grounded down my fingernails on the right hand. By bedtime, my hands were numb and sore to the quik.

Sleeping came hard and fast but so did 7:30 am. I'm still living on pre-time-change hours. It was cool and damp as I wiped down all the dew and Jack taped the protective papers up around the edges. Last time we painted, we rolled the paint on but this time, Jack bought a couple cheapy paint guns and we were prepared to spray our way to a better finish. Friday was our short day. We were done with painting by 12:30, cleaned up for 15 minutes and got ourselves over to the Warbird Air Show by 1pm.

We saw some nasty clouds go by but we had no rain the entire night inspite of radar showing us this at 1pm. Thank you God. Our paint dried with only a few suicide bugs and pollen specks.

Saturday, the boys were finally past their flu bugs and we all were outside for most of the day. My primary job was to varnish like nobody's business. Jack hung things up as they were done. Also, he did a little bit more (metal) sanding and painting on some back hatches that we added to our project. Getting access to hoses, hardware and wires was a pain until we put these in. Jack did a great job of finishing these in no time at all.

We also did some work on the underside of the pulpit at the end of each day. Jack had to sand out the corrosion then sprayed primer onto the area. The next day, I was able to practice my spray-painting skills by painting this area. Sadly, my work will never be seen, but I know how good it is. That area will be attached to the bow of the boat in another week or so.

Here you can see the restored cuddy door hung back up. What a feeling of accomplishment!

Now that the gunnels are done, Jack can wet sand the area next weekend, work on the pulpit and reattach everything. I can't wait to see the guard rail back up. It will be nearly complete when that happens. The last bit of painting left will be the flooring & adding some non-skid surfacing to certain areas on top of the cuddy (where I stand), steps and back sides where we step onto the boat.

The finished inside transom "wall". See the new hatches? The battery hatch (center) will have some pole holders added to it soon.

Very tired but pleased family by Saturday night.

High winds this week = 3-5 ft seas. Be careful if you go fishing.