Kaimusailing

Now the beam was finally reaching its conclusion. Addition of the fillets and a few spacers where through bolts attached the cross deck was an easy job compared to the difficulty of matching scarf joints in 12 foot planks and all that glue. There was some trimming and some shaping.
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I had mixed a full batch of epoxy to paint onto some bare spots on the beam, then mix with colloidal silica to use as a filler to smooth out some void spots. My flip-flop fell into the water and I stopped to try to retrieve it with the boat hook. I couldn't find it and realized the epoxy would cure before I could get it out of the mixing bowl. It began to get very hot as I frantically tried to apply it before it cooked off. It became a huge blob of steaming hardening epoxy. There are some techniques to prevent this early curing. When epoxy begins to cure, it rises in temperature and that rise in temperature accelerates the curing process. A pot of epoxy can begin to smoke and cure up into a hard knot right before your eyes. It seems like the more compact the mixing pot and higher ambient temperatures can make this more likely to happen. A wide flat mixing pan will help prevent it, also keeping the resin cool before mixing will help.
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I decided to launch the inflatable (deflatable) dinghy to look for my lost flip-flop. I had to reroute the electrical cord and haul the shop vac down to the dock and use it in reverse to inflate the dinghy. The extra time in dragging the shop vac around is offset by the quickness in dinghy inflation, compared to the usual hand pump. I flipped the dingy over and one of the oars got caught and broke right at the oarlock. I kept on going. After rowing around the docks and other boats, the flip-flop was nowhere to be found. I was disgusted, hauled the dinghy back onto the dock. Began the walk up the sharp stones of the pathway with one flip-flop and one bare foot. Ouch!
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At the top of the hill I realized the dockmaster had left two recycling bins to be hauled to the other side of his property for collection the next morning. I was the designated hauler, so I hauled. It seemed like every sharp stone and piece of glass was in my path. What a bad day.
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When I was in the dinghy I took a look at the other crossbeams from under the crossdeck. I was hoping #1 beam was not as bad as it had seemed last fall. It turned out it was worse than I expected. It would have to be replaced just as the current project, #4 beam being replaced.
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I went to the lumber store and cherry picked through a pile of “premium grade” 5/4 decking. It was obvious that part of the pile was identical to the good quality lumber I got last time, and the rest of the pile was marked as premium, but was not at all the same grade. Of course a lot of planks had to be moved around to get the small pile I needed.
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It took longer than I expected and when I got to the docks, the lumber had to be moved down to the foredeck and stacked and clamped to continue drying without warping. A young fisherman had his aluminum fishing boat hauled up on our beach next to the dock and set off into the inlet. He was joined there by another small boat of youngsters. Then he began riding around them in circles. He created a series of wakes that crossed the narrow inlet, jostling all the boats at the docks. My stack of lumber was like a house of cards that kept falling every time a wake came through. I had to tie, clamp, or strap lumber together to get it stacked properly. The picture is of the lumber stack.
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It was getting late and I left the lumber stack and walked to the end of the dock. There was a flip-flop on the beach. It had been under that youngster's boat.