Feb. 18

After the weather and coffee, we pulled up the dinghy for some more patching. Yesterday I found two small places that seemed to be leaking water. We hoisted it to the foredeck and while in the upright position, I patched the two areas. Then we turned it up-side-down to ride on the foredeck for the trip to Little Farmer's Cay... our destination for the last few days.

When we flipped her over we found that the 4 foot strip of fabric that connects the fiberglass floor to the tube was completely detached on one side. A major problem.. and one that could have been avoided if we weren't so cheap. A new dinghy at the boat show was the proper course of action.

Anyway, we were here... and some work needed to be done if we were ever going to get to shore again. The strip of fabric was still connected to the tube so we carefully rolled it back and wire brushed the side to be glued. We did the same for the section of hull that where the fabric was going to be place and then cleaned everything with solvent. We gathered as many reasonably heavy items as we could find to weigh things down after gluing. Finally, I mixed up a batch of West Systems, (epoxy) liberally painted both surfaces and stuck things back together. Next I covered the glued area with paper towels and put the weights on top.

After a couple of hours drying, I removed the weights, scraped off the paper and inspected our efforts. Things looked good but I found two small places where water could find its way in so I filled them with 3M 4200.

I mixed up another batch of West Systems and cut a 6 in wide strip of fiberglass matting... half of which was placed on the newly glued section of fabric the other half on the adjacent section the fiberglass bottom. When that dried, I sanded the rough pieces of matting and applied a final coat of epoxy.

By that time the day was gone so we put off our departure until tomorrow.