We spent the majority of the afternoon(Tuesday) escaping to the internet room in the boat yard. With the workmen painting and rolling on the new epoxy paint(in grey) on the forward section of the deck, the fumes, even with the AC going were getting a bit hard to take and since Tracy has had breathing problems in the past when exposed to paints, etc, it was just a better idea to take off. We'd spent the morning caulking the tops of our deck boxes and sanding down and smoothing out where we had laid on epoxy filler on blisters so we had gotten some work done. We want to buff the hull but with the men still sanding the decks, it would be pointless as once done, they just spray water everywhere to get rid of the dust. The hull is a mess with white streaks running down the side.

When we got back to Zephyr, the forward section was all done with tons of blue tape covering every piece of exposed hardware and hatches. Now it has to harden which should be by tomorrow morning. Then they will be doing the final smoothing of the stern section of the deck and painting it with epoxy as well. How we will get up and down and in and out of the cockpit and boat are a bit of a mystery to us but we'll find out tomorrow. Ali, the main contractor is going to pick us up some of the same paint he is using on the deck(except in white)for us to paint the hull below the water line. Being an epoxy paint, it will seal the hull and help bond the anti fouling paint that will go on after it. We took a count and we've painted Zephyr's hull five times since we bought here in 2007. First was in Point Roberts way north of Seattle when we were just getting a survey done. Next was in San Carlos, Mexico. Then on to Fiji where we spent almost a year(Vunda Point Marina near Latoka). On to Kudat on the north shore of Borneo. That was the hardest paint job as the men we could get to strip off the old paint took close to a month to do the job. As workers for the boat yard, there was no rush as far as they were concerned as if it took longer, well they still got paid and the boat yard made more money the longer we stayed there. Nice racket. On to Krabi, Thailand were we had it done after the bottom cleaner we hired not only got the growth off the bottom, he washed the paint off as well with the rag and tools he was using. Our problem was that we didn't realize what he had done till we were several hundred miles west of Thailand on the way to the Maldives. Knowing that the next possible place to get it done was in South Africa, close to a year away, we turned back and got the job done in Krabi. Now we are in Trinidad and it's time again. With the average cost of a gallon of anti fouling paint at well over $300US we want to get the best bang for our dollar knowing that no matter what we get, we will still be facing hauling Zephyr out again in about a year or so. We made it for sixteen months this time. That's about average but the time is more gauged by where we are and is there anywhere where we can actually get hauled out safely. That's always the challenge.

With this Thursday being a holiday, we will have some peace and quiet during the week and next Monday is also so we loose a few days but gain some quiet. At least they are no longer pounding on the deck stripping off the teak planks. Tomorrow makes it one month since we got hauled out. All is really progressing well. With luck the workers will be done in about another week. Then we have to wait for the upholsterer to get to dodger and bikini done along with all the other jobs we need to do ourselves.

It's now Wednesday afternoon and work continues. The men showed up this morning, cleaned the stern deck, put blue tape around the stern hatch and started in with the grey epoxy primer again. A few hours later and they were done and off for a holiday tomorrow(Corpus Christy Day). It's all grey instead of the white it was but at least that part of the job is done. Next is to sand again and fill in any missed nicks or scratches and then paint and install the non skid. Once that's done, we have to empty the cockpit and get it ready for the last finishing. We still have a ways to go.

We, meanwhile "re did" or just "did" a few more of the blisters on the hull. I'd missed a couple or they didn't have enough epoxy filler on them. So it will be another day or so before we can epoxy paint the hull and get on with the actual anti fouling paint.

Once the epoxy filler was applied, we grabbed our redone deck boxes and headed for the work shop for the yard. Anyone can use it for any project. The man who runs the wood shop that did the boxes stopped by and didn't really like the job we did with the black rubber caulk on the top. He sanded it down a bit and told me that I should redo it(I hate redoing projects). "Just put some caulk on the box, smear it into the channels, wait for it to dry(about a day) and then sand the top again with an electric sander". So that's just what we did. They are sitting by Zephyr waiting out the drying process. With that done, we took the rest of the box(both of them)and sanded, used a tack cloth to get out the sanding dust and then applied a coating of Interlux wood sealer. We need to put on two coats and since it takes 12 hours to dry, the second coat goes on tomorrow. By that time, the lids will be done so we can sand them and apply the sealer to those as well.

So here we sit, avoiding the epoxy fumes waiting till about 1700 when it should be fume free and we can go home.