Kaimusailing

I ran out of graphite right in the middle of the project, so I went down to West Marine to get some more. Now West Marine had closed the local store and consolidated in its store in Glen Burnie, about 15 miles away. When I got to that location there was no West Marine store, but a lunch bistro. My smart phone was unable to browse the internet to find out where the real store was and I was stuck in a traffic jam caused by all the exiting traffic stymied by a traffic light that catered more to the through traffic passing by the mall. I drove a few miles and decided, while I was in the area, to visit the large Home Depot store. It had a better stock than the local one. There in the same shopping area was a large West Marine sign. I cut across traffic and zoomed in to the store. It was large with a huge area of marine sports fashions and way in the back, things like paint, epoxy, head chemicals, and large reels of rope. In the epoxy section there was an assortment of epoxies and fillers like my favorite, colloidal silica, wood flour, microfibers, and even dozens of bottles of white pigment. No graphite. I asked the staff about it, “It's used as a black pigment, I see you have a lot of white pigment here.” They said they didn't carry it, but the store on Kent Island might have it. “Well, it's discrimination against the black pigments”, I said. I ordered some online and it would be in soon enough to finish the second half of the project which would be doing the hatch covers that open into the bilges.
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A weather system was on its way with severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings. I decided to hang out on board overnight because the wind would shift ninety degrees from SE to SW and blow in the 20 knot range. Of course it rained like hell while I rowed the deflatable out to Kaimu fighting the wind gusts. On board, the NOAA forecast rattled through each and every Chesapeake area, each and every day and night forecast, all with the deadpan computer generated voice. It sounded like I would have to reanchor sometime the next day to take advantage of the north shore of the inlet blocking the NW wind that would build during the day.
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The rain stopped and the anchorage was peaceful, the sky cleared and the water was like glass. The next morning was nothing like the forecast, light westerly winds, clear skies, a pleasant day. Then the wind began to clock to the NW and blow up to the 20 knot range. The anchor was holding and the angle to the shore meant even if it dragged a bit, there was a lot of room.
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Graphite came in from eBay, free shipping. It took 2 days.
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The work continued applying the same treatment to the hatch covers of the sole, which could be called deck plates. Faux screw holes were drilled, matching the pattern of the sole, and filled with epoxy that would make the covers solid and impervious to water. The first application of epoxy was without the graphite. It took about 3 applications after that to fill the screw holes and cracks between the planks. Making one application in the morning and a second late in the day sped the process up.
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After the planking was filled with epoxy, the next step was to grind off the surface, exposing bare wood and smoothing the surface. A new 36 grit 4” flap disk in the angle grinder turned out to be the best tool for removing the epoxy. The high speed of the grinder makes burning the surface of the wood likely, so when the disk starts to get hot it is best to take a break and let it cool off. The belt sander with 80 grit belt was used for larger areas. The belt sander does a nice job of making the whole surface flat, as far as it can reach.
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The picture, cropped to fit sailblogs, is of the clouds breaking up after the storm, showing a bright cirrus cloud, the light at the end...