And the work continues.
03 July 2016 | Power Boats yard, Trinidad
Bill/ partly cloudy
It was another day of work, work, work. We're closing in on "leave day" and we still have a lot to do.
I reinstalled the lamp over my work bench early today. We'd had to drop it out of the ceiling when we were removing a big cleat that was bolted to the deck. It was used for the old adjustable side shroud that we stopped using back in Malaysia. It was just a chunk of metal we would occasionally trip over. Now it's gone. After that, while I reinstalled the cleats for the sheets in the cockpit, Tracy was busy trimming off the excess caulk on the deck prisms we installed yesterday. There was some sanding of the deck involved as once the bracket was bedded in the caulk, it sat lower than the surrounding deck. With a razor blade and a bit of sandpaper, off came the extra caulk and the epoxy filler. Now we have a bit of the deck to repaint but that's no problem. I got the four cleats re bolted in the cockpit and that chore is now over. I still have one more to do that's outside the cockpit for the roller furling line but I need some white caulk to mount it properly as it's exposed to lots more salt water than the rest. When we removed it, we found a good bit of corrosion on the base where it was mounted and seeing that on a stainless steel piece was quite the surprise.
Once we had those done, I removed the bench vice that I use regularly. Salt water had come in during our last passage and it was encrusted in corrosion. Cleaning it while still attached to the work area was not going to do the job. It needed to be unbolted and taken to the workroom the yard has for cruisers, stuck in their even bigger vice and then heavily wire brushed to get it all off. Only problem was that another cruiser was going to do some sanding and painting on some plywood panels and I didn't want the particles of rust I was getting off to land on his panels. Once I was about half done, I bagged it so the other cruiser could do his painting with no chance of getting anything on them.
We retired to the boat for lunch and came to the conclusion that there was too much to be done for us to take the afternoon off to play Mexican Train dominoes. The teak cap rail and bulwarks needed attention. We'd had extra scaffolding delivered on Friday so we could get to the rails and bulwarks easier. While I worked on the scaffolding, Tracy slowly worked her way down the deck(knees grinding away on the new non skid) sanding the teak cap rail. The side panels on our bulwarks are all made of teak and have grooves between the narrow planks. These grooves had to be sanded so out can the Fein Multi Master tool with it's sanding attachments and I was on it, running the sander down each groove as well as under the cap rail. We needed all the built up gunk off the teak so we can get it prepped for sealing and varnishing. I started in with a 80 grit paper and moved to 120 and then when Tracy was done with the big orbital sander, I used some 150 grit. After three passes over the teak panels, they look really good. No longer an embarrassment. We washed off the deck and the cap rail as well as the bulwarks and will let it dry over night. It was close to 1700 by the time we were done. It made for a long but fulfilling afternoon. We were off to the showers to get all the wood dust off ourselves and to try an feel a bit more human(and stink less)
Tomorrow, we will be applying a teak cleaner to what we worked on today and then add a teak brightener that neutralizes the cleaner. Once these two chemical concoctions are done, we again have to wash the teak and let it dry. Once dry, I'll be applying some teak caulk to all the seams on the bulwarks to try and keep water from getting under the wood and leaving rust stains down the hull. It's been doing that for a while and it's past time to put a stop to it. Bad thing is that the caulk takes 48 hours to fully cure. It's not going to get anywhere near that before we start applying the wood sealer. It's getting down to crunch time and we can't afford to wait. We really need to be out of here around the 15 as I have reservations to fly home about a week later and that's from Grenada. We have to get there and get into the marina and all safely tied up to the docks before I can take off. Plus there it Immigration and Customs we need to deal with. I'm taking some things home with me for repairs and I have to get a letter from Customs about them so I won't be charged import duty when I return. These next 12 days are going to be fast and furious to be done on time. Lots of multi tasking is in our future. While some things cure, other jobs will be done. Stand by for the fun(yours not ours).