OMG, it's another HOT day in Trinidad. We had a bunch of rain yesterday which with the cloud cover made the day quite decent. Today, while rain is again in the forecast, it's beautifully sunny and almost clear. The humidity from yesterdays rain made it quite muggy and add in the incredible sunshine and it's miserable outside. We got a somewhat early start on repainting the hull since the last paint we used just didn't hold. The first two coats of red did but the top two coats of black failed miserably but we didn't have a single barnacle when we hauled out but the red bottom coat was showing in lots of different places on the hull. We hired a crew of two to take off what was left of the black yesterday and that went well. Today it was time to get more paint and do it again. I was still working on the anchor chain putting on the new nylon webbing and Tracy started in with the new paint. Lobster continued with repairing the cracks in the combing around the cockpit as well as the cracks in the anchor locker hatch cover. The woodworkers were back putting the final touches in the teak so it was nice and sealed against the hull. We still need to put on the Perfection Plus coatings to protect it but the master woodworker said to let it age for a month or so and put saltwater on it to darken it up a bit so it doesn't stand out as being new.
I was in the final stretch of the chain about noon and Tracy was done with the port side(shady side) painting so we broke for lunch and some much needed coolness inside the boat drinking lots of liquid. With the AC on, it's a delightful change from the heat outside.
Once done with lunch, I braved the heat and went forward to unclog the drain hoses that takes the water from the channel under the anchor locker hatch overboard. It had gotten clogged up with epoxy filler dust and dirt when the men where sanding and grinding the deck when they took off the teak decks. There was no way the water was going to go out the hoses. I took off some clamps and used some old stainless steel wires I keep for just such a project and after stuffing myself inside the anchor locker, loosening the clamps and poking the wire up and down in the hoses, out came the clogs. the hose was now clear and ready to do it's job at the next rain which will probably be sometime today. We've had some sort of rain everyday since we got here. Once we get a bit cooler, we'll be heading back to the chandlery to get more bottom paint. Five liters just isn't going to give us enough coverage.
Brent told us today that he has extended our stay here till Tuesday so I know we will have everything done by then. Not much left to do thank goodness.
We went back to the chandlery and bought another five liter can of paint as it became apparent that there wasn't enough in just one can to even do one coat let alone two as needed. With that in hand, we returned to Zephyr and as the afternoon cooled off, we continued painting the starboard side. In the end, we did have to open the new can just to finish this one side. By 1800, we called it a day and as of right now are planning on heading to the restaurant for dinner then up to the showers for a much needed cleanse. Boy am I ripe!!! The deodorant just isn't cutting it in this heat and humidity.
I've downloaded some pictures so you can see what we've been working on.