It's now Thursday and the workers have been at it for a week as of today. That's five working days. In that time, they have taken all the teak off entire stern deck, cut a big hole in the fiberglass and chiseled out a bunch of rotten wood, filled hundreds of holes in the deck where the screws were that held on the teak. They sanded down the deck to get off the last of the mastic and find any of the holes that had water in them(just two). Once all the holes were filled, the entire back deck was fiberglasses and then the first layer of filler putty was applied all over the deck to level it out. Yesterday, they started in on the port side deck that runs along the hull. The sight of one of our major leaks. From what the workmen said, the manufacturer used lots more mastic to hold the teak planks down than on the stern area. It was slow going and all the pounding, scraping and sanding finally drove Tracy off the boat. She hold up in the internet room in blissful quiet other than the hum of the air conditioner. Can't say I blame her it was so noisy and with her coming off a nasty bug of some kind, it was for the best by far.
Yesterday, I started in on rejuvenating some of our through hulls. There are pipes that turn on and off, either letting water out or keeping water out. We work on them every time we pull the boat. Then simply unscrew and then the plug(sort of cone shape)pops right out(with a bit of persuasion some times). They get polished and greased and put back together. Not a hard job but one that can get messy and does take some time. We found that the "grounding" wire to the engine through hull had fallen off after the screw fell apart. Corrosion will do that I understand. Off for a new brass screw(none in all the mass of screws I have), a tap to put threads in the metal and a matching drill bit to make the hole. Took four places before I could find what we needed. People tell me that walking is good exercise. It sure made me ready for my late afternoon cold water shower. Got the hole drilled, tapped and then had to cut the screw shorter as it was too long. Covered all the fittings with a rust/corrosion inhibiter and installed. Now it's back on the "grounding" loop. Not really sure why it gets grounded but better to do it than not. I got two of them before I got pulled away for another job.

This morning, the men showed up and continued with ripping off the planks. Once done, they sanded off the last of the mastic and after a good bit of discussion about the leak we have on the port side, the decision was made that since they couldn't find any obvious signs of water intrusion at any of the screw holes, it had to be coming in where one of the scuppers(a big hole in the side of the deck that get the water off the deck--like a drain)has developed a big crack and is quite discolored. The plan is to "vigorously" sand that area, lay on some fiberglass and epoxy. Once it sets up, we will take our hose and saturate the area with water and see if the water still comes in. We should know by tomorrow.

We'd already taken off the forestaysail sail, we needed to take off the bracket that holds the forestay to the deck. I climbed down into the anchor locker with my biggest crescent wrench while Tracy took one of our biggest screw drivers and while I grabbed the nut under the deck, she turned the bolt. Amazing to us was that who ever installed it had actually put a rust inhibitor on each of the bolts. They unscrewed nice and easy. No corrosion to fight. Once the bolts were out, I pulled off the big steel plate under the deck that helps stabilize the forestaysail stay and pulled it out finding a nice amount of sealant attached and a ton of rust as well. I took the plate off the boat and started in getting all the corrosion off but in the end, we will probably need a new one. I found a metal shop here on the yard that can make one for us but I have to call him back later to get the price.