Day Five - Friday 16th October

It's still raining. The clouds do not look as ominous as yesterday though. The more I think about the hull, the more I resign myself to the conclusion that I will have to burn off the paint and learn how to caulk it. The deck can be finished in a number of ways - I am still deciding which. I think it comes down to either:

 

1. Sand and repaint with deck paint. No change to what it is - just gets refinished.
2. Lay an industrial vinyl. Provides more waterproofing, easy to work. Joints are a pain. 
3. Skin with a marine ply veneer, epoxied to the existing deck. Will give a lovely finish, but challenging to do.

  

About working by myself.

Between the weather and being alone, I am not making the progress I really wanted to. Even the (what should be) simple jobs seem to take an age. As an example - removing the front anchor chain. Actually, its not really a chain, more a pile of rust that seems to have fused/bonded with itself at multiple locations. Imagine untangling 50m of spaghetti, well cooked and sticky, where each metre weighs 10Kg - then threading it through a hole big enough to get one strand through at a time. This is the job I needed to do. It probably took thirty trips from the front outside deck, back to the fly-bridge, down the stairs, past the galley, through the saloon and into the front berths - where I then need to manoeuvre myself into a hole 50cm x 40cm to be able to free the chain from the underside. Two people could have had this job done in 5 mins. It took me nearly half a day! I am determined however, to leave here on schedule, on Monday morning. (if you are wondering, I am not leaving in the boat - just leaving the project for a couple of weeks).

 

 

Things to bring to make the next visit more productive:

 

Angle Grinder

Distilled Water

Heat Gun

Paint Stripper

Scrapers

50m Extension Cable