May 16, 2016

Tough week.  Truck broke down three times going to and from an outrigger race in San Diego.  Dealing with those issues precipitated other problems, all leading to lots of stress, lack of sleep, significant expenses and additional things to handle.  Still, I managed to get a few things done on the boat. (Good therapy if nothing else.)
I laid on a total of six coats of Cetol (3 Marine, 3 Gloss) on the teak trim around the cockpit coaming so I can now move on to the rest of the teak in the doghouse, which will be coated with Epifanes varnish.  The labels arrived for the switch panel, so I figured out a way to get them on perfectly aligned, which is a challenge because once the label adheres to the panel, it can't be adjusted.  I made a cut-out template from a piece of cardboard to guide the label placement.  It worked perfectly.   I also attended to a few details in aft cabin such as floor trim and polishing up the aluminum frames for the port lights.
In addition, I showed a neighbor the secret to getting a nearly flawless paint finish using the roll and tip method, and saw my friend Curt's new (to him) boat.

Tomorrow is another day.

May 9, 2013

It was a busy week, but a lot was accomplished.  Bruce, a master mechanic who was once a service manager for a Rolls Royce dealer and has been a marine mechanic for the last 15 years or so, helped me diagnose my alternator issues.  (He wouldn’t accept any payment, so I twisted his arm until he agreed to let me buy him a beer at our local hangout.) The alternator is fine, it’s an instrumentation issue.  I cleaned up the main ground connections on the engine which seemed to help.  I need to replace an idiot light bulb too.  No big deal.  Whew!  Hector came by to trial fit a new scoop/bug screen for the forward hatch and delivered the carpet pieces for the aft cabin to which he had added some matching edge trim.

I did some work too.  I finished the restoration of my outrigger paddle in time for a race on Saturday, glued down the carpet in the aft cabin, finished sanding the teak in the cockpit/doghouse and applied some penetrating epoxy and a bit of Cetol, finished and mounted the pinrail on the shelf fiddles in the aft cabin, and completed the cockpit table with the addition of a modified mount I found in a used marine gear store.  If that isn’t enough, I spent a day taking photographs of a group of pianists for a client of Carol’s.  Been paddling a lot too.  And yes, I’m tired!

May 2, 2013

It was a mixed week:  some things went well, others not so much.  The sanding of the teak in the doghouse progressed to the 120 grit, but Jordan got sick and was unable to do more.  I refurbished the switch panel in the cockpit and ordered new labels.  I also swapped out the old and corroded Morse shift/throttle control lever with a much nicer one.  Unfortunately, the new one was a mirror image (yes, it turns out they come  right or left handed), so I had to open up the guts and switch everything around to get it to work properly.  In addition, when I started the engine to check the shift operation, the alternator was no longer charging.  I still don't know if it's just coincidence or if something got bunged up when I was putting in the new shifter.  Serious alternator troubleshooting is on the list for next week.  In the aft cabin, I finished up the bits of teak trim to hide the ugly cleats supporting the shelves by the quarterberths and added some pinrail to the fiddle on the port side (starboard will get the same treatment).

The first major wildfire arrived this week, narrowly missing my friend's place and blowing up some nearby RVs.  The great blue heron nestlings are growing fast and screaming to be fed!  Flowers are in full bloom, too!