Mike
08/17/2009, Deltaville, VA

August 13 Deltaville, VA
With another overcast day, the temps should stay in the mid eighties, which means that we should get some varnishing accomplished. But our first task was finishing the toe-rail bedding. After completing the taping, I wiped the areas down with solvent and began the process of applying some mahogany colored 5200. The color that came out of the tube is not the color on the outside but we'll hold judgment until it cures in about a week. We added a narrow line of bedding above the teak eyebrow as well to keep things from washing behind.
It took us most of the morning...with a trip to the hardware thrown in to purchase more material, but we finally finished and had some lunch.
Then Kathy worked applying the third coat of cetol on the cockpit teak while I scrubbed the blue stripe. Yesterday I used the heat gun to remove the Sapphire decal from the side of the boat. It was a mistake, the lettering was gone but the glue was still there. After scrubbing with solvent and wiping with a towel about 10 times, it was done. I did the same thing to the areas where our MC numbers had been. I still had the boat name on the port side to do but used a razor blade instead of the heat gun and got most of the glue at the same time. Then I fired up the sanders and hit everything (the blue stripe that is) with 220 grit.
By now it was about 4:30 and time for a shower. We don't have much food on board but did manage to scrape up a rice dish with onions, left-over grilled pork chops, and mushrooms. Along with some broccoli, it made for a reasonably good meal.
Later we watched some crazy guys in the Bering Sea attempt to catch King Crab.

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Mike
08/17/2009, Deltaville, VA

August 12th.... Deltaville, Va
When we arrived yesterday we found our scuppers clogged with pine needles and water pooling everywhere. It only took a few minutes to drain things, and no damage was sustained, but there was a mess to clean up which we put off until this morning.
In the afternoon we took the courtesy car to pick up some groceries, and opened all the packages that arrived here in our absence. We really didn't accomplish very much.
This morning I hooked up the hose, closed all the hatches and spent about an hour scrubbing our decks. Then, I borrowed a stepladder and went around the boat scrubbing the blue stripe which we've decided has faded way too much to be able to tolerate another year. I removed the Sapphire decal and our MC numbers and have things ready for sanding, which we hope will be tomorrow.
Next, we began the task of removing our toe-rail bedding. Kathy worked on the inside and I was on the ladder working on the outside. It was a slow job and one that we'd been putting off for abut a year, but by mid afternoon we were done and began the process of taping to apply new bedding.
It had been cloudy all day, which kept the temps down to the mid 80's but when the sprinkles became a shower, we changed and drove into Hurds (Hardware Store) for some supplies.
On our return we taped for a while but were rained out again.

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Kathy
08/11/2009, Lowell, Michigan

August 3-10, 2009 Michigan

Not much to say about the last week. We visited in Holland, Lowell, where we had a nice dinner with friends and family, Rockford, Crystal and Carson City, back to Lowell, Holland, White Lake, Lowell, Crystal and Carson City, and Lansing. Most of the time was spent talking and dining with friends and family. When we see the time left winding down we try to cram in as much visiting as possible, knowing we will probably not see most of them for another year.
We found our friends, Jan and Dan, at home and were happy to see them. They were not expecting us and their house was torn apart, as they were working on a project-Jan was in hysterics for a moment-apparently she has never seen a boat in the midst of a project-there is no comparison!
We had a nice afternoon lolling around on Crystal Lake in Debbie and Davey's new boat. Ahhh, boating!
Our friends at our old marina outdid themselves once again, putting on a superb lamb dinner with spinach pie and all the other fixin's. It was delicious. We also slept in a boat that night, thanks to Bill and Darcy.
All in all, we've had a great visit here in Michigan. There are people we would like to have seen more of, and some we didn't get to see at all :(, but it was a pretty good visit.
We are heading back to Deltaville now and I'm sure Mike will resume the blog and it will be all about boat work for the next 3 weeks or so. Hmmmm, wonder if I could come up with a reason to stay behind ? Actually, I think I'm ready to get back.

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