Work in the Heat
25 August 2024 | Pension Tiare Nui
William Ennis | Hot, windy
When I was preparing to depart Anchorage, I texted a good friend and he laughed: "“Sorry, I Have to go to FP to do a little maintenance.. “ haha." His take was that I was whining because I have to go to French Polynesia for any reason! He's right, it's not as if I'm in Selma, Alabama, but work is work, after all.
Every piece of wood on the exterior of the boat has been hand-scraped, sanded, and varnished. Most of the cap rails had their third coat today, and the accent pieces only their first. It's work done on my hands and knees, bending over to work on the wood. Exhausting.
Yesterday, Friday, the local weather report indicated that it would rain but clear by 5PM. Rather than sit in the bungalow, I packed some water and the phone for photos and took on a round-island tour.
It was a reviving experience, just being someplace else than the yard or the room. It's been a few trips here since we've driven all the way around, but that's what I did. It takes about 2 hours, since it's a small island. It reminded me of just how beautiful this place is and why we stayed here all of these years. I'll post some photos later tonight or tomorrow.
When I made it all the way around, I was at the Carenage just at 4:45, so I dropped by boat to complete some varnishing. The weather report was correct and we had no rain, giving the varnish a chance to cure. Since it was past closing, there wasn't a lot of yard dust in the air, another benefit of starting a bit later.
Afterward, I dropped by the Bottle Store in Uturoa and enjoyed a draft beer at the only bar-like establishment on the island. The same friendly female owner served and it was a fine introduction to my evening.
From there to the Roulotte O'Ray, one of my favorite roulettes and close by the bungalow. Steak frite, a somewhat gristle-y steak with a mountain of fries. Sure beats pasta!
Today, Saturday, I worked all day and got the entire cap rail varnished, and the brow, a teak accent strip around the cabin top and the handrails, all stripped and varnished. At this point, every piece of wood on the boat has at least one coat and the cap rails have three coats. Even if I don't get any more done, it's not bad.
As for the main event, getting the mast step replaced and the mast installed with rigging, well, that's a bit more problematic. The yard guy did a spectacular job on the mast step. There's an aluminum plate that with a "male" of the mast base. The mast fits on that that and is locked in place. Interestingly, the guy found that only that about 70% of the plate was underlain with a block of epoxy and only the forward 30% or so was the disintegrated wood that we thought underlaid all of it. The guy removed that bad wood and filled in with epoxy, then 20mm of fiberglass. To complete the repair, he painted the entire area with white epoxy paint. It looks great, is prodigious strong, and completely waterproof. It's just what we wanted. It should be cured by Monday. The new rigging cable arrived on Friday and is on the boat. We asked that the part of the mast below deck and a few above deck be re-painted for appearance. All that remains is to attach the rigging, get a crane in to lift the mast into place, then attach the new rigging to the boat. Of course, the rigger will have to seal the mast boot, the vinyl sleeve that attaches one end to the boat and the other to the mast. He'll have to seal the chain plates, the stainless steel attachment points for the rigging and that protrude through the deck. Those are mission critical tasks but ones that can be accomplished easily.
While certainly possible, it's not certain! I depart Raiatea this coming Friday at 3:40PM, arrive in Papeete, the fly to LA, through customs, then to Seattle and Anchorage. Yikes, an entire day and half of flying! I'm sure that I'll look and feel my best on arrival. And Conni will be there to welcome me home.