A Busy Day...

Yesterday I woke up 6:45am to find it pouring rain outside, so I laid back down to snooze for a few more minutes and woke up at 10am.  It was still raining so I decided this was going to be a day to get a few things done around the house.  As far as the boat goes, I went to my marine supplier and picked up some marine primer (1 gallon) and some marine bilge paint (1 quart), and got out my checkbook and wrote a check for almost $200.00.  I love this boat, I love this boat, I love this boat....

When I got home from my errands a neighbour knocked on the door and handed me a package with the stainless steel fittings that I ordered in early June...  between the postal strike and the delivery person delivering the package to the wrong address, it took more than a month for the stuff to arrive... That said we now have some great folding padeyes to use on the foredeck to secure the dinghy when we are on long ocean passages.

Today, the weather forecast was looking better so I went to the boat early and started to get the lazarette ready to be painted.  I began by shovelling out the ton of junk and rotten wood that had accumulated.  As I was blindly throwing the junk out the lazarette and overboard, I almost hit Shelley's dad who came by to help for a few hours.  More about his help in a minute.

As I was cleaning up the lazarette there were a few drips of epoxy that had fallen on the walls so I took the grinder to grind them off only to find it barely able to rotate...  Not really surprising, as 2 days ago when I last worked on the boat I was grinding for at least 5 hours... I added a few drops of WD-40 in hopes that things would improve, but that good idea only lasted about 30 seconds and it ceazed up again...  With a dead grinder and about 1/3 of the boat still to prep for primer, I decided not to waste any time trying to repair it, as I realized that I purchased it more than 5 years ago from a surplus store for $29.00.... I'm thinkin' it doesn't owe me anything...  So off to Canadian Tire only to find one just like the old one for, can you believe it; $29.00...  As I went from the boat to Canadian Tire the heavens opened and it rained almost until I made it back to the farm.

Just as I pulled in, it stopped raining so I continued my work on the lazarette.  This is when Ed came by... fortunately I missed him with my projectiles and he began to work, grinding the cockpit area as I continued to work in the lazarette.  We worked about 4 hours and Ed did an amazing job getting the cockpit area ready for me to get some epoxy layed down.  Buy this afternoon the sun had returned and we were both hot and filthy, but happy with what we got done today...

Our day ended by enjoying a really cold beer in the shade under the boat...  I hope he comes back another time, he worked hard and did a great job.

I have to admit that I am beginning to get a little discouraged overall with this work taking as long as it is and it sometimes feels like we will never get this boat finished... that said, I think that in another few days we may get to the place where we can get some primer down.... We'll see...

(Sorry there is no pictures today, I forgot to take any...lol.)