We Have Paint!
06 December 2011 | Whangarei, New Zealand
Rod

Work on the boat continues for us here in Whangarei. The past two weeks have seen the bottom being glassed, filled, contoured and sanded. And today, we have a major milestone. We have paint on our new bottom. This is significant in that we have not had finished fiberglass, much less paint of any sort on Proximity’s bottom since we did the planning in February. It’s kind of like having no wheels on a car. Yes, it mostly looks like a car, but it does not go anywhere. After not having not having a boat for so long, Proximity is nearly there, and yes, we are very excited about it. Tomorrow we will fill pinholes with epoxy, and paint epoxy again on Thursday. Then we will start putting on the anti-fouling bottom paint.
In the mean time our forward hatch project is moving along. We have an interesting story with that one. It turns out that the wood worker who is doing our hatch just returned from South Island where he was working on sets and furniture for the upcoming Hobbit movie. His name is Daniel, and he also did all of the Elvin furniture, as well as carts and tables used in the original Lord of the Rings movie. So, the hatch is going to be good – he does beautiful work.
Tonight was music night at the local Irish pub, McMorressey’s. It has become a regular thing with us to go on Tuesday nights when they have “traditional session” night. There are many really good musicians who gather and play and sing. It is quite a joy, and they have become friends. Usually, this evening would be shared with our friends, Matthias from Berlin and Dave, Elisabeth’s concertina partner, from Scotland. Matthias is a container ship captain, and has gone back to work. Dave and Mary have decided to sell their boat and build their dream house in Scotland. Thus, they are both gone now, and we miss them. Maybe our table was just a bit less rowdy tonight.
So while life is somewhat quiet for us here right now, it is very exciting to see our boat coming back to life, and for us to see that soon, we will once again be back on the water. We are hoping to be back in the water by Christmas. Can we do it? Maybe. We will see.