Well, Cetol, but same thing.  After over a week of prep – strip, sand with 80 grit, sand some more with 120 grit, remove old caulk, chemically bleach the teak, tape, caulk, untape, sand some more with 180 grit and then a final sanding with 220 grit.  Now Ann is taping (yet again) the edges of the wood so I can start varnishing.  Four coats at 24 hour intervals for the stripped wood and two coats for the rest of the boat.  The end is near, at least for this project.  Then we can start all the other ones.

I love this part when it all comes together for that beautiful varnished teak color.

What more can I say?

"There's a spot..."

Our friends John and Lisa are back after over a year “on the hard”.  Orcinius has had an extensive refit and is raring to go.  They proudly came through the bridge (that wasn’t even here last time they came up river to go into the boatyard) this afternoon and docked just down from Charisma in Riverside Marina.  Guys, we’re glad to have you back!

The new drawbridge waiting for Orcinius' return.

Comin' through the bridge.

Orcinius looking better than ever.

Happy to be back!

OK, it’s my birthday today (April 3rd).

Ann put on a great party.  We had a bunch of cruising friends up at the BBQ for a pot luck birthday.  What a great time!  Such wonderful friends and I got to hear “Happy Birthday” or some such, sung in English, German and Swedish (OK, I sung the Swedish version since Ann made me do it).

Can you get a better view for a birthday event?

Some of the gang at the party...

What a great day.  Thanks to Ann for putting it all together…

…and on, and on…

OK, so for the last couple days we’ve been doing some of the less glamorous jobs.  Like caulking the seams on the teak.  Not very exciting, not much fun.  In fact, it’s back breaking work, but has to be done before you can varnish.

So…a quick look and hopefully we’ll have something more interesting to show in the future (like finishing installing the windlass…??)

First you have to tape the seams, then inject the caulk into the gaps...

...then you smooth the caulk with a putty knife. Easier than it sounds. Lastly you pull the tape as you work, before the whole mess dries...

There you have it.  Caulking 101.  Now all we have to do is let it dry a couple days, sand it a couple times with progressively lighter paper and put four coats of cetol on it (with 24 hours between coats).

Oh and today I put the last of the four injectors back in the engine.  The local mechanic pulled all four injectors and had them serviced.  I just wanted to make sure all was well.  Apparently the guys in Fiji who cleaned them did a pretty good job,  but one was not “seated” properly.  It was leaking and had to be re-machined a bit, but it’s all done now and all is well.   We even timed the injector pump.  When I did it in Fiji (not having a clue how to really do it) I came very close, but it was a tad off.  We adjusted it further here and now Charisma’s engine is purring like a little kitten.  Nice to know all is well in the engine department.  I’ll do an oil and filter change before we leave for Fiji again in a month or so.

OK, that’s it for today…

You’ve heard never to get your wife a vacuum cleaner for her birthday haven’t you?

Well, possibly our friend Michael hasn’t heard.  See for yourself what he bought his lovely wife Charmaine for her birthday the other day

Wow! This looks pretty exciting...!

er, um, oh--how exciting, a generator. Just what I've always wanted.

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Oh yeah.  The projects never quit.  You start on one and then it magically gets bigger.  I was going to just take off the varnish on the companionway hatch since it was peeling – but that led to stripping the “eyebrow” a strip of teak that goes all the way around the cabin.  Once I did that, it led to the cockpit where the teak has not been redone since I bought Charisma in 2007, so I said; “what the hell…” and jumped in on that.  Well, once I took a really close look at the wood to deck joint that led to a whole caulking exercise – which added another two full days of gouging old caulk out, taping the area and all day today putting the new caulk back in.

And you know what?  Unless you know what you are looking at you would never notice all the work.  Oh, well.

Taking off about ten years of old Cetol with the heat gun and a putty knife. Notice the ear protection-this thing shrieks and the project takes all day...

Taping the seam for the new caulk which is basically a very gooey mess until it hardens - hence the need for careful taping of the work.

Some of the caulking requires backbreaking contortions.

While waiting for stuff to dry-there are other projects waiting in the wings.

Ann enjoying her contortion skills polishing the hull. Only 54 more feet to go!

I was just going to "inspect" the windlass. I ended up taking it off the boat, stripping it down and painting it. Now that means a couple more coats over the next several days (if the weather holds) and then reinstalling.

OK, it’s about day three and I’m already exhausted!  And sore!  Check out this picture and you’ll see what the last two days work has looked like.

Typical position crammed onto the deck with the heat gun and putty knife stripping off old Cetol (varnish). Last year I did half the boat and this year the other half.

Another day or so of stripping and then the hard work.  Ann will be doing the taping to protect the gelcoat on either side of the wood and then we’ll start the sanding and bleaching (as needed) followed by four coats of Cetol on the fresh wood and two coats on the rest of the wood that we did last year.  It’s the “not fun” part of owning a lovely boat.  The teak makes it lovely and different from the all-fiberglass more modern boats, but ahhhh, the work!

We’re also been doing a two hour hike up the local mountain (“Parihaka”) each day to help shed all the weight we’ve gained from months of traveling.  The bonus of the hike – it’s to the lookout which has a beautiful view down and across dozens of miles as well as being through gorgeous old growth forest.

Here’s a tip for the sailors out there for “fixing” zippers on canvas-work that have seized shut from salt water corrosion.  Spray them (thoroughly coat) with butane lighter fluid.  It’s an oil, but very viscous and penetrates deeply into the corroded part and breaks down the salt inside.  Try it – it works!  We just used it today on some parts of the dodger we had to break down that haven’t been touched for a couple years and were absolutely jammed.  After coating around and inside the zipper – voila, it opened.

We also had the fuel injectors removed and sent out for cleaning today.  After the contamination incident in Fiji last year, I want to make sure they are absolutely clean and in spec.

More projects coming up, but a lot of wood work to complete in the mean time.   Stay tuned.