OK, a little Beatles nostalgia for any of those old enough to remember.  We’ve now been on the hard and WORKING for eight days.

Ann’s new favorite job is painting the bowsprit!  Well not exactly.  She was pretty cranky this morning knowing that was her main job today.

We built a scaffold to get up to paint the bowsprit

Not the most fun job. It's a little scarier than it looks and very tedious. Almost takes more time to sand and tape than to just pain the thing. We also have to sand in between coats.

But, someone’s gotta do it.  For my part, I spent most of the day working on the detail work on the lazarette hatches.  After epoxying the plywood backing, I now have to put a couple pieces of teak trim back on (step one-epoxy), I’ve already taken out a couple seams that were leaking, have taped them and tomorrow will fill them with black polysulfide (also know as caulking-step two) and then need to finish the new plywood backing which will need a primer coat (step three) and several coats of polyurethane (steps four, five and maybe six).  Nothing’s easy.

Today’s other highlight was the Sunday Yachties BBQ.  A pot luck at the gazebo where the BBQ is.  Fun as usual to get together with a couple dozen other folks who are sailing the South Pacific.  We sat with a French couple, a Swiss couple and an American couple-who it turns out knew one of my good friends from University days.  Very small world.

A good day.  Well, any day not spent grinding fiberglass in the bow is a good day, but we ARE progressing.  Ann is one day away from finishing polishing and waxing the hull!  Yay!  Charisma is looking beautiful.  It has taken almost an entire can of Carnuba wax so far.  That’s a lot of elbow grease.  And that’s after she went over the entire hull with polishing compound to remove the oxidation.  Wow.

For my part I did some miscellaneous stuff today, but it was nice to get a LOT of things going that are actually on the list!

-Ordered spare oil and fuel filters for the engine and a spare alternator belt

-Got the wood shop to cut plywood backing for the lazarette hatches off of the pattern I made from some scrap cardboard.  I have already primed the backs of the plywood and will epoxy them on to the teak hatches on Sunday.  With any luck the hatches should be as good as new in a few days.

-Ugly job alert.  I spent a couple hours down in the lazaratte digging out old packing from the stuffing box.  Sorry there’s no pictures to describe this-it’s just a really terrible job jammed into a small space under the cockpit.   There’s really no extra room to take a pic. Contortionists would love the project.  It’s definitely a three Tylenol job.  BUT, I got all the old packing out and put three new pieces in.  Basically this is the thingy where the propeller shaft goes out through the hull.  The packing is a kind of wax/hemp combination (looks like square piece of rope) that when “stuffed” into the stuffing box, has a tight enough fit that it keeps water from coming in through the prop shaft hole.  At least not much water.  The ideal according to most experts is that you tighten the gland that compresses the packing just enough so it drips about one drip/30 seconds when the engine is off and one drip per 10 seconds when the shaft is turning.   OK, got that?  I didn’t think so.  Forget it unless you own a boat, then very important to figure out.   😉

-While I was in the lazarette, I greased and exercised the through hulls (don’t ask) and greased the rudder bearing.  Very easy to ignore these things, but they will “bite” you if you do.

So, tomorrow, we’re going to do more work, but in the morning we’ll take a bit of a break and walk over to the Saturday Farmer’s Market.  Then on the way back stop by the cruiser’s swap meet up on the bridge.  We’ll try and take some pics to explain.

So that’s it for today.  Oh, also, Shane, one of the boatyard guys who we gave our old foulies to, brought us a beautiful Red Snapper this morning.  It was really one of the most fresh, gorgeous fish I have ever seen and I put it on ice until dinner when we filleted it and wrapped it in foil with some veggies and tossed in the BBQ for a delicious dinner.

That’s all from the boatyard for today…

Today, I finally felt like we were making some progress forward instead of just getting buried deeper in projects.  Some stuff actually started moving forward and we got stuff done.

But first, I have to say how lucky I am that I got a wonderful Valentine’s Day card from Ann with my morning coffee.  I only wish I had been as harumph, er, ah…proactive.  Well, I took us to a nice dinner as my contribution to Valentine’s Day.

So, now that the bobstay project is moving forward and in the machine shop, I decided to move on to a new project.  The lazarette hatches.  These are teak with plywood backing. They have been leaking and I knew they needed work, so I took them off and starting working on them.  I’ll make this long story short and let the pictures show that the plywood backing was rotting and almost all of it had to be scraped and sanded off.  But…the project’s still going well.  I got them down to the last bit of laminate, was able to put two coats of primer on them and tomorrow will patch them up with some putty.  Then I will either fiberglass the backs or epoxy a piece of plywood back on-I’m not sure which at this point, although I have cut some cardboard patterns should I decide to go with the plywood.

This is the top side of the hatch cover

Found some rot in the corners

After scraping some of the bad wood out, I found it was more extensive than I thought

Nice to have my new grinder (Christmas present from Mom and Dad)

Two hatches on the workbench almost ready to prime

On another note: the holes for the bobstay bolts had some "voids" in the fiberglass. We plugged them with dowels and filled them with epoxy. I'll drill them back out in a couple days when the epoxy dries. The new fitting is done and I'm picking it up tomorrow.

In the mean time, the one thing going according to schedule is Ann's work on cleaning and polishing the hull. Just check out the shine...!

Page one: our partial list for the boatyard folks...

Page 2 is the list of stuff we're supposed to do.

So…some progress.  Feels good to get something done other than just grinding away at the same stupid hole looking for the mystery bolt.

Hopefully more progress tomorrow as well and we’ll be working through the weekend hoping to catch up a bit from our slow start.  Would be nice to finish up so we can do some land cruising, but since we’re paying for the boatyard by the day, it’s important that we get all the needed work done so we can “splash” back in the water.  Some of our list can be done later when we’re back in the water, but there’s still a few things that can only be done while on the hard.

Yeah, get used to it.  We’ll likely be here another two weeks.  After six days on the hard we are progressing on some of our projects and not so well on others.  Specifically, Ann is kicking on the boat polishing project.  She is now applying the final carnuba wax coat on the hull and will likely finish tomorrow.  Good progress.  On the other hand, Bob has been working for days on a project that was not even on the project list, so he’s not progressing so well on that.

Major corrosion that would have resulted in a sudden catastrophic failure, resulting in dismasting. Glad we found it, but it's taking time and effort we hadn't planned for. Oh well, welcome to boating.

These are about 1/3 of the tools I "burned up" trying to excavate the bolts for the bobstay fitting. At about $20/tool.

We couldn't get to the heads inside the hull, so finally resorted to having the metal shop guy cut them off with a cut-off wheel. Took about 30 seconds!

Here's one of the bolts showing the head that was cut off. If you click on the picture and look closely, you can also see the bolt had some crevice corrosion going on the left side (which was the outside closest to the water).

I set up a scaffold and am inspecting the entire bowsprit (which is about 12 feet in the air)

OK, so the bobstay wasn’t on the project list, but we’re really glad we found this.  I don’t think the fitting was a lot longer for this world and if this part breaks-so long mast!  I already have a quote for the machine shop to make the new fitting.  About $280 for the fitting and $28/bolt.  However, there is also still some fiberglass work that we need to do which I am looking to the shop to do that will add to the overall cost.  I found some ‘voids’ inside the bolt-holes and underneath the backing plate.  I’m having the fiberglass guys inject epoxy resin inside the holes to strengthen the whole thing.  It’s  a bit more complex than that, but suffice to say I want to make sure it’s solid given the work I’ve put in so far to get this right.

So…now that this project is more or less on a path to a solution, I’m moving on to other projects that are actually on the list.  Next up-the lazarette locker hatches.  When Charisma was originally surveyed (for purchase) the hatches were pointed out as needing reinforcement.  They are finally to the point where I have to agree.  I’ll be removing them, grinding out the plywood backing which has some rot in it and then either/or (I’m not sure yet) epoxying a new plywood backing, or just fiberglassing the inside of the doors.  More to come on this once I get the doors off and have a look.

Ann will be spending tomorrow polishing the rest of Charisma and then will move on to the cabin and cockpit sides.  She is building some fierce muscles.  We both are very impressed with how beautiful Charisma is looking from all the effort.  She’s shining-and I must say, I think I can see her smile from all the attention.

The second bolt that is.  Whew what a job.  Two days of grinding, sawing, drilling and the only thing I have to show for it is that two bolts are now visible in the bow under the anchor locker.  It’s been a very ugly job and I have multiple bruises on my arms from “jamming” myself in through the locker, between the sampson posts in order to reach far enough to dig the damn things out.  Turns out that now I’ve got the bolts exposed, I’m too big to actually get a socket wrench on them and turn it, so tomorrow we have another (smaller) guy coming over to help with that part.

Doesn't look like two days worth of work, does it? But I burned up about $200 worth of saw blades and burr tools cutting through over 1 1/2 inches of fiberglass and epoxy to get at these buggers

Of course Ann kicked butt on her project and moved around to the starboard side. Less than 1/2 boat to go!

But....at the end of the day-THE BEST BBQ CORN EVER!!!!

An amazing boatyard sunset

And, the happy couple after a delightful dinner and a fistful of Tylenol

But, despite bruises and painful shoulders (try polishing a boat all day long as Ann’s been doing) the Tylenol is kicking in, dinner was fantastic and we’re noshing on a few bites of dark chocolate.  Life’s good.  Soon the medicinal rum will be deployed.

After working all day on exhausting projects, we were actually too tired to go out to dinner.  We decided to just BBQ some burgers and corn in the boatyard.  Wow!  We could not have had a better meal.  First off the scenery (see above).  Second, the food was unreal.  I just threw the corn in the husks on the fire, dropped some portobello ‘shrooms and then some ordinary looking “minced meat” (what NZ calls hamburger) on the barbie.  I have to say, all of the above were the best we’ve ever had.  The corn must have been harvested locally as it was so plump and bursting with flavor and the minced meat, er, I mean hamburger was amazing.  What really surprised us was how it didn’t shrink one bit.  I’m used to burgers getting about half as big once they are cooked-these guys didn’t get any smaller-there’s very little fat and fillers.  I’m going to buy less next time now that I know.

OK, so that’s all from the boatyard for today.  Stiff necks, bruised arms, sore shoulders and happy campers signing off for now!

My project for the day...discover where in the world the bobstay bolts are hidden under the fiberglass in the anchor locker. This is the locker, looking downward.

This is where I spent the day. The bobstay fitting was behind the two wooden posts in the background (they are called "Sampson Posts")

My actual "uniform" of the day. Headlamp, earplugs and facemask.

Uh huh. Six hours spent like this and I'm not halfway done...

Yup, that's about all I've got to show for six hours work. One bolt is just showing and the other has been "found" but not yet excavated.

Argh, Ack and Uhhh! were also heard during the day.  When it’s bad, it’s bad.  Not a fun day.  I’m beat.  Not to take all the credit for tough jobs.  Ann’s beat too-but she’s actually showing some progress on her project.  She “rounded” the bow this afternoon and is polishing the way down the starboard side.

The bobstay fitting removal project is turning very ugly.  For several hours I couldn’t even be sure where the second bolt was.  Turned out I was looking in the wrong direction.  I finally drilled a hole right through the bow so I could see where in the heck I was.  Good news, I found out.  Bad news, the second bolt is in the worst possible place.  Right under a bulkhead.  There’s a small “bridge” where it is, so I have some working room, but not much.  The electric saw (Fein Tool) won’t fit under there so I had to buy a Dremel tool with a burr cutter.  That’s tomorrow’s project.

There's a really nice little BBQ area in the yard. We bought some veggies and grass-fed beef at the farmer's market and did us a BBQ this evening

It was a yummy dinner...

The yard at night. That's Charisma on the right. We're living at the top of the ladder

Boatyard mania!  Our first full day in the yard and we’re exhausted.   Ann’s polishing the hull (37 feet down one side and 37 feet back the other) and I spent the day polishing the propeller.  You say; “The whole day!?”  You betcha.  The prop and associated other metal parts that support the prop shaft were covered in barnacle residue (I chip the barnacles off on a monthly basis by diving when we’re in the water) and needed to get all the residue chipped off one-by-one.  Not a fun job.  Standing under the hull with a pick to knock off bits of barnacle and piece of sandpaper to then smooth the surface if very tedious.  I used my new cordless grinder that I got for Christmas (Thanks Mom and Dad!) for the rough work, but then had to use wet and dry sandpaper to progressively polish the prop back to a nice smooth bronze surface.  A lot of work, but looks nice.

For her part, Ann spent the day on a platform rubbing the hull with rubbing compound, then polishing it off with a wax cleaner.  After she goes down one side and back the other, she’ll have to do it all over again with the final wax coat.  Having done it myself a few times, I can sympathize.  It’s not a lot of fun, but the results are worth the effort.  Charisma is going to SHINE.  However, it will take her about four more 8 hour days at least.

OK, we’re pooped.  More tomorrow including some pics of the polished hull and beautiful propeller.  I’m sure you’re all dying to see!     😉

Morning at Ray's Marine just before hauling out

Coming out of the water

All out and ready to move into the yard

Charisma's set on her hardstand and the anchor chain's out in ten foot increments for marking

Rudder straps already ground down and primed, ready for fairing and paint.

We hauled out today and are now living on “the hard”, about 12 feet off the ground.  It’s always a bit harrowing hauling out.  Boats look very awkward out of the water and all I can think of is 28,000 pounds hanging from just two straps under the crane.  Scary.  Anyway, we’re now all set up sitting on the ground.  The bottom has already been sanded, some of the areas where the paint was coming off have been ground down and painted with new primer, the scrapes on the bottom where we ran aground at Aitutaki have been faired and I’ve dropped the anchor and put new depth markings on the chain.  And that’s Day 1!  I’m sure things will slow down, but nice to get a fast start.

One of the things we did today was call a friend we have met who has a machine shop in town and ask if we could use his drill press to resize the holes that the new nav instruments need to fit into.  Antony (no “h”) said; “By all means!  If I’m not there just let yourself in”.  So off we went and when we showed up and he wasn’t there, we let ourselves into his shop and started setting up the drill press.  Then one of his friends showed up and we all introduced ourselves.  Fortunately Ann was there to do the socializing while I was working on setting up the “jig” I made to drill the 3 and 3/8 inch hole for the new instrument.  I started cutting, but the drill press wasn’t quite up to the very hard, thick plastic I had to drill through.  So, I’m cutting away, very slowly to keep the tool from binding (which it was doing anyway), when another of Antony’s friends named Pete showed up.  He was more aggressive about suggesting the drill press wasn’t strong enough and was bound and determined to “help”.  So there I am; two of Antony’s friends and now Antony has shown up, the drill press is jamming and everyone has an opinion (these guys are all amateur custom car builders, so no lack of builder’s opinions-and all in Kiwi accents).  Finally the Pete grabs the jig, and my bag of parts and says; “Come on mate, we’ll get a proper drill press”.  Off we go with a quick wave to Antony who apparently is accustomed to his friend “taking over”.  We charge across the street and into a gas station where Pete walked in the front door, quickly said; “Do ya mind if we use the drill press”, then headed toward the shop while the owner of the shop called; “OK” after him.  We’re just following Pete at this point and wondering where the heck this is all going and what’s going to happen, but Pete has the part the needs to be drilled and he’s on a mission.  He gets in the shop and makes a bee-line to the press, sets up the hole cutter and my part of the jig I made and proceeds to start to cut.  It’s working, so I’m fine just watching.  Anyway, long story a little shorter, Pete cuts all four of the holes, I sweep the floor and we’re done.

As the headline suggests, this was a classic Kiwi moment. Everyone here is so helpful and also very headstrong (lead, follow or get out of the way).  But all in all a lot of fun!