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.