Out comes the deck prism!
01 May 2016 | Power Boats yard, Trinidad
Bill/ Cloudy with sprinkles
The good news is that Tracy's fever finally broke early this morning. She woke up feeing a good bit better. This feeling got transmitted into "Lets take out the deck prism". So while it was still raining and the tarps keeping much of the rain off the deck(but far from all), we sat out on the edge of the deck and started getting it out.
Now most deck prisms, from what I've read are a nice prism held in place by a nice rectangular chunk of either stainless steel or brass. Ours had stainless steel. The books say to cut around where the prism meets up with the inner edge of the steel bracket, cutting through the mastic that seals it in. Then cut around the steel bracket till all the mastic that hold it in place has been cut through. It should just pop off in our hands. Then get under the prism and slowly push it out of the hole cutting any more mastic that remains. Strangely, ours was different. Gee what a surprise.
While I worked on the bracket, Tracy cut around the inner edge of the bracket between the prism and the steel. Suddenly, the prism just pops out of the bracket. It wasn't holding it in at all. Only the mastic and gravity kept it in place. No wonder it leaked water(though not much). We spent the next hour slowly cutting off the left over teak that the bracket was screwed to. Then we slowly took a big scraper and inserted it between the bracket and the wood. With gentle hits by our hammer, we slowly worked our way around the edge till the mastic finally broke free. Off came the steel plate, the bottom still covered in mastic. We'll get it off tomorrow. We chiseled off the last of the teak on the deck that was under the plate, laid down some plastic sheeting and duct taped it in place. It's keeping water out just fine. The plan as of now is to have a thin piece of star board(dense plastic)cut so that it extends about ΒΌ inch from the edge of the steel plate and have it fiberglassed to the deck so that the deck prism, once it's installed will be slightly raised off the deck making any water that comes by run around it instead of over it. Seems logical to us. We'll see what the deck experts think tomorrow.
Tracy spent the rest of the afternoon laying down recuperating from what she did in the morning. She's far from up to par and it may be a few more days before she's back in tip top shape. I took off for Crew's Inn for an afternoon of Mexican Train dominoes. Tracy one a traveling trophy last week and I needed to make sure it got returned to the group. With an umbrella in hand I walked over and didn't get back till just about 1700.
Tracy had more chicken broth for her dinner and I had an easy to fix red curry rice dish with teeny little bits of shrimp in the pouch. Add some water and the flavor pack, stir and let sit for 7 minutes. We bought then quite a while ago and I still have some left so it seemed like a good thing to have for dinner. Quick and easy.
I'm back at the internet room as the wireless network in the boat yard is either slow or non existent. We will probably get an internet data plan for the computers next time we are at one of the shopping centers. Tracy has turned in for the night. The workmen are due about 0800 tomorrow. It's going to be another busy day, that's for sure.
The picture with this post is of the steel bracket and prism still attached to the deck.