December 24, 2012

It's Christmas Eve day and I'm enjoying a white Christmas in Des Moines visiting Carol's family.  Quite a change from the cactus garden at Carol's place in LA to 20 degrees and a foot of snow in the midwest!  In the few days before I left, I jammed with Jordan to get the teak trim around the doghouse ground down, sanded and protected from the impending rain with a coat of Smith's penetrating epoxy.  I also managed to get a fourth coat of Epifanes RapidCoat on the teak in the aft head.  It looks good enough to call it "done."

I'm posting a bit early this week because today may be the only day I can gain access to a computer and Internet connection while in Des Moines.  It will also be my last post of 2012.  It's hard to believe another year has gone by so quickly and there is still so much more to do on Circadian.  But looking back through the old posts reminds me how much has been accomplished, so I don't feel quite so bad.

I wish everyone a happy holiday and a wonderful new year, and I thank you for staying with me ANOTHER year.

December 20, 2012

The brevity of the post belies the length of the labor.  Wet-sanded and painted the head twice more, for a total of one coat of PrimeKote and three coats of Brightsides Hatteras Off White.  Top coats were rolled-and-tipped, which resulted in a very smooth and shiny finish.  After pulling the masking tape from the painting, I sanded the teak trim in the aft head and masked it off.  So far, there are two coats of Epifanes Rapidcoat on the teak, and it already looks pretty good.

The oak shelf for the vanity got two more coats of epoxy (sanded between coats) and a first coat of varnish. With luck, one more sanding and coat of varnish will do it.

Finally, I got started on sanding the exterior teak trim around the doghouse.  It was in such bad shape that I had to start with the grinder to level the grain.  I've got Jordan working with the orbital sander, starting with 60 grit, to smooth out the grinder marks.  Hopefully we'll get it down to 220 grit by noon tomorrow so I can seal it with penetrating epoxy before I take off for Des Moines with Carol for the holiday.

December 13, 2012

This week was all about dealing with the exigencies of the weather.  Projects had to be planned around intermittent and unpredictable showers, and the dampness and cold resulted in a few new problems to be corrected.

I continued work on the small head in the aft cabin, primarily prepping and painting the fiberglass liner.  It's a lot of work, requiring lots of boat yoga to get it done in a cramped space.  So far it's sanded, primed and a first coat of polyurethane enamel applied.  It will probably take at least two more coats, wet-sanded between each coat, to get it right.  I also continued to work on the "vanity" in the aft cabin.  Since I got two "thumbs up" on the oak strip surface for the shelf, I did additional work on the oak strips to make sure the final result was a smooth, flat, and durable surface.  It's not done yet, but progress was good.  Whenever weather allowed, I've been applying coats of Epifanes RapidCoat to a pair of trim pieces that will eventually frame a mirror on the vanity.

So much for the forward progress.  In the remedial department, I found that the additional dampness brought on by the cold, rainy weather was enough for the oak strips with which I so carefully lined the aft cabin  to expand enough to cause some to buckle and pop off the wall.  While each piece might only have expanded 1/100 of an inch or less, when there are 20 or 30 pieces fitted precisely together, the total expansion can approach 1/4 of an inch!  So, in several places I had to re-cut, reshape, and refinish a piece to accommodate the expansion.  Hopefully when the pieces shrink back in drier weather, the gap between each piece will only be that 1/100 of an inch!

Up in the v-berth where I sleep, there is still no overhead liner or insulation.  As a consequence, when it gets really cold, enough condensation forms on the overhead to start dripping.  Unacceptable!  As a quick temporary fix (until I put in a new insulated overhead), I tacked up some bubble insulation using double-sided foam tape.

Well, two steps forward, one back is better than vice versa....

December 6, 2012

It was a pretty productive week despite a few setbacks.  Good progress in the aft head, and getting started on the "vanity" between the berths in the aft cabin.  I'm not sure if I like the oak strips as a new shelf surface, so let me know what you think.  I refinished the port cockpit coaming where premature rain had damaged the "final" coat of Cetol Gloss, and replaced the "flapper" for the chain-stopper that I lost on a summer cruise to Santa Cruz Island.

Big swells created big surf, with the normally placid "kiddy" beach filled with breakers and strong rip currents.  Ten to twenty-foot swells also made for an "E-ticket" ride paddling outrigger canoes offshore on Saturday.  It was exciting and a bit scary getting back into the harbor, but we all made it without mishap.