So I Hired Two Strippers ...

We augmented our crew this past weekend. On Friday, our friend Linda came into town and she and Kathleen spent the afternoon stripping, stripping and sanding varnish that is. Wilparina has a good amount of bright work - in this case, teak strips and rails - and such stuff needs regular maintenance. Most of the varnish work is old, chipped and failing. Once the varnish starts to fail, you generally have to start from scratch and remove every bit of the old vanish, carefully clean the bare wood, and then patiently add coat after coat of new varnish. This takes a long time. But once you get it under control, it isn't that difficult to maintain, as long as you occasional apply a new coat of varnish to keep it from weathering.

We all went back to the boat on Saturday and Kathleen and Linda continued with their stripping project. We added one more stripper as our friend Connie also dropped by to help. The dust was flying topsides. I spent most of the day lying on my side on the dock, repainting the name on the starboard side of the hull, and adding the home port - Portland, OR - underneath the name. I also did a little marline spike seamanship and spliced ½ inch nylon line onto our four new fenders. We now have matching fenders - in "Cranberry" - that complement Wilparina's color scheme.

Earlier today, we all met for breakfast, including Carey and Christopher this time, and then went out for a short sail on the Columbia. The wind was steady out of the west, so we ran downwind, upriver on the Genoa alone. The entire time we were on the same tack. That was pretty relaxed sailing. But even with Genoa alone, we were keeping up with all the other sailboats running downwind. Wilparina is heavy, but she isn't slow!