It's Corpus Christi Day here in Trinidad. Workers for the most part are taking the day off yet the noise of some projects in the yard still can be heard.

We collected the tools and our can of wood sealer and headed down to our scaffolding where we have set up shop. While Tracy sanded the insides and outsides of the boxes, I made use of our electric orbital sander and got rid of the extra caulk on the tops of the boxes. Started at 60 grit, then 100, then 180 and finally at 220 grit. Nice and smooth and the caulk looks much better than when we used the tape on the tops. Every channel is nicely filled and sealed.

I painted on the first coat onto the tops of the boxes and then hung them under the boat. On to the rest of the box and they were then hung too along side the tops. The tops still will need another coat to catch up with the rest of the boxes so that will be done tomorrow as it takes a good 12 hours to dry between sandings. We'll decide tomorrow if we will progress to applying the varnish or go for a third coat of sealer. So far, they look great. We will be taking some more pieces of teak off Zephyr on Friday and getting the varnish stripped off them as well. I'll post some pictures once we get them off. I can't really describe what they are till you see them. It's a set of teak pins in a piece of teak that is also attached to the granny bars like the boxes were. The varnish is shot and if we are doing the boxes, we need to do the pins as well. We'll be also doing the hand holds that are attached to the deck as they look pretty bad. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Once we got the boxes done, Tracy started in on another inspection of the hull getting the last of the barnacles off. She found a few more places that I'd missed when I was applying the filler. So I made some more and we now think that we have every place that needs it filled. With luck, we should be applying the epoxy coat on Friday or Saturday. We'll see how time and weather goes.

A few months ago, one of the twisting handles that clamps the Tohatsu out board motor to the dinghy broke. I'd already bought replacements for them but they had vanished inside the boat(gee what a surprise). I could find the pins that attached the handles to the screws but not the handles. Tracy finally found them about a week ago and now was as good a time as any to put them off. I took out my drill and got rid of the pins that had attached the old ones and then with a ball peen hammer, I slowly pounded on the ends of the rivet pins that were to hold the new handles on. It took some time but they are now attached. I will need to do a bit more pounding before they are perfect, but at least they are doing the job and aren't broken like the last set.

Tonight is barbecue night again at the Roti Hut. They let us use their outside seating area for the gathering(they close by 1230) and it's a nice place to gather. I was put in charge of buying the charcoal we need since I'm close to the Hut. We get about 2 kilos for about $9.25US. Not a great buy but it sure is fun getting together. As it's getting late in the season for cruisers to show up here(most put their boats in storage and fly home)last week, we only had about 10 people when we normally have about 16. Let's hope more boats show up as it's great to meet and talk to other cruisers and get out of the boat for a change.