Mike
08/17/2009, Deltaville, VA

August 14th , 2009 Deltaville, VA
It rained hard all night and continued until around 10 am leaving our meadow mostly submerged. We wasted time on coffee and a big breakfast and spent some time putting things away and picking up before the next mess.
At around noon we took the car and stopped at the vegetable stand and the grocery...we're still low on provisions.
On our return I began the process of replacing our water heater. Getting the old one out was slow but not a real problem since I've had it out twice last year. The stand that it was mounted on however proved to be another story. It consisted of two 2x4s bolted to the floor of the cabinet with two layers of marine plywood on top of them. The bolts were rusted to the point of no return but not quit gone enough to break. I ended up removing the plywood in tiny pieces and then cutting the bolts with a hacksaw. Two hours later, while Kathy was busily applying another coat of Cetol to the cockpit, I began removing the plumbing under the sink....where I had just removed the water heater. I took out the Seagull filter, the water filter, the pump, the expansion tank which hasn't been used in 20 years, and all the lines connecting things together. It was a mess, and I've always been embarrased to look at it.
I played around with the placement of the new water heater and finally came up with a plan that should work. The real question is...do I try to save some of the old fittings, or replace everything.
I grilled some ribs for dinner along with some sweet corn and sliced tomatos....which was simple but tasted good. I may buy the country style ribs again and work a little harder on spicing them up properly.

Comments [0]

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.

Comments [0]

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.

Comments [1]