April 4, 2011

Much of the week was spent slogging through retirement paperwork and beginning to go through all my accumulated junk so I can prepare the house for sale and get ready to move aboard. I managed to cull out five cartons of old files for shredding and install new wire mesh to cover the crawlspace vents where vermin were getting in.

I also managed to wrap the steering wheel with 3/16 inch nylon cord. It makes a much bigger difference in look and feel than is apparent in the photos.

When the weekend finally arrived, it brought with it weather that was perfect for epoxy and fiberglass work: dry and upper 60's/low 70's. The pear blossoms were in bloom in all the orchards and it was a beautiful.

I was finally able to work on installing a second (starboard side) ABI portlight in the last remaining spot causing a cabin leak. It was the same process I went through when I installed the first one (See December 13, 2010 post.), with a couple of the minor refinements and efficiencies that come with doing a job you've done previously. Once I had the hole cut out, it really brightened up the cabin and allowed nice cross-ventilation in the breeze that had come up on Sunday. The hole even aligned with the porthole on the opposite side. Imagine that! The inside plywood backing of the cabin wall was still wet from earlier leaking around the shabby old caulk around the existing opening, so it will need to dry out before I do the finally grinding for fitting the port and epoxy the exposed edges of the plywood. If the weather gods smile upon me, perhaps next weekend....

I still have a total of five more bronze ports to install, but those can be done as time permits after I've cut loose.

While I waited for epoxy and filler around the portlight to cure, I worked on completing the installation of the cockpit locker/hatch doors that was begun back in February. The port side had been temporarily mounted, but needed to have sealant applied before final installation. The starboard side was complicated by the need to add a fiberglass filler panel (See February 27, March 7 posts). To complete its installation, I needed to sand and fair the joint where the new panel had been added, complete the cutout and mount the door/hatch with the specified silicone sealant. It turned out that the most difficult part of the job was removing a fiberglass plug from the holesaw I needed to make the cutout. It's normally a bit of a hassle, but this one was really stuck. It took a good half hour to get it out and required drilling pilot holes in the plug and driving long screws through it until they forced out the plug by pushing against the bottom of the hole saw. In the end, I was still able to get both sides done.

By the end of the day I was exhausted, but felt I had accomplished a lot. I was actually able to cross one item off the list. Sometimes it feels like I'm trying to eat an elephant, but at least this week I felt like I've taken a good bite out of it.