Kaimusailing

The sudden change in the ambient temperature and the unfinished, unstarted, grinding job on the hull bottoms gives me a bad feeling, like will I get anything done before winter really sets in, now that I’ve squandered the 6 weeks of good weather by sailing around. In that time we’ve gone from North Carolina to Fort Lauderdale, then from St. Lucia to Fort Lauderdale, and finally from Fort Lauderdale to Gulfport, Mississippi. When we first left the working environment had just started to cool down from the high heat and high humidity, and now on the way back to the Gulf Coast the change in temperature was distinct, my Caribbean clothes were inadequate, I froze, although the low was only 41 degrees.
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I started some grinding today, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and it was about 1 PM and there was no warmth from the sun. I was using a 40 grit belt sander on the starboard hull to remove old layers of Pettit 2000 barrier coat. This stuff might be effective if it is applied during summer’s heat, but if I remember correctly, I was applying it in October in Maryland using heat lamps to warm the surface. Maybe that was not enough. The difference between the port and starboard hulls is significant, the bottom paint on the port hull comes off in chips, on the starboard hull that was coated with the barrier coat, there are large patches where the bottom paint sloughed off, leaving bare epoxy/glass surface. So, I am grinding a substance that is like old chewing gum, it clogs the sanding belts and bubbles when it heats up from the friction of sanding.
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I manage about 2 hours of the sanding torture. My arms are sore, the belt sander is not a lightweight tool, I find other things to do. Still, I get about 8 feet of the bow sanded. It is obvious that the reblocking of the boat, lifting it onto blocks so that it is higher off the ground, is necessary. We have been asking for this for all this year. I’m sure it will happen now.
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The boatyard is in full swing, the season here is the reverse of the season up North, there the boats are launched in the Spring and hauled out in the Fall, here they are launched in the Fall and hauled out in the Spring. They spend their winters in the Bahamas, South Florida (The Keys), or in the Caribbean.
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I hate to admit it, but it’s coming up on 2 years I’ve had Kaimu here for repairs and rebuilding. A lot of work has been done and a lot more has to be done. It’s like building a boat all over again. When I put the boat together 15 years ago I wondered if I could do it at my age, now I am much older and doing it again. It is taking much longer this time. Of course, back then, the boat was very simple, no solar panels, only the mast up, none of the rest of the sailing rig was ready. Now it is more complicated. The work is just a difficult though.
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I spent about an hour today with the grinding process and could see that if the stuff stuck on the boat’s bottom won’t come off, then OK, it is there to stay. I will have to order more epoxy as I am almost out. I have to make fairing mixtures and repair any damage to the laminate. The boatyard owner, chief crane operator, and manager says he will lift the boat on Wednesday. Probably early. No sleeping in.
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The day seems short, freezing cold in the morning don’t want to get out of the bunk, then coffee and late breakfast of Ritz crackers and peanut butter, then venture out to find out it’s almost noon. Prepare for grinding, put on a Tyvek uni suit and respirator, get to work grinding, give up after an hour. It seems like late afternoon already. I go to the communal area and use the computer to check on the progress of the rest of the world. It’s about a quarter to four and it is seems like the sun is going to set. It starts getting chilly again. I watch a presentation by Benoit Mandelbrot in the TED series on youtube. I try to hang on and the other yardbirds are off to make supper. I leave in the dark and make a ham and cheese sandwich for supper. It is pitch black and a quarter after six.
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The image is from the internet, it is the Mandelbrot set graphic.