Rain Delay....

As I feared last week, I got rained out this weekend. I really wanted to get BeBop primed up but mother nature rarely cooperates with sailors it seems. I did manage to accomplish a little bit this weekend though. I sanded down the rear cockpit locker cover and teaked it so it's ready when the painting is done. It was surprisingly difficult thing to do and it took about 4 hours. Below is the before and after. It took ten 60 grit sanding pads for the project. Yes, teak wood has some very unique properties..chews up sandpaper too.



After completing the cockpit locker, I used some bronze wool to take off the minor surface rust and grime on the dodger frame. It still needs another going over but it should work fine when I put it back on and get another dodger made money permitting. I put the last missing piece onto the back part of the companionway hatch today too. I finished painting it during the week. I also put another piece of weatherstripping onto the front top companionway hatch in hopes of reducing the amount of water leaking in. It's been raining WAY too much recently for the dry season in Florida. While inspecting the interior, I discovered that about 2 inches of water had run down into a small six inch locker amidships. Didn't hurt anything, I sponged it up in about 5 minutes, but considering I'm moving onboard that amount of water leakage is unacceptable in the future. I suspect that with the dodger on it will reduce a lot of this. I know it won't be completely stopped until I move onboard and I can see the slowly leaking areas. Then I can repair them one at a time until it's 100% dry in heavy weather....not 99% like it is right now.

Well, to summarize, I have all the materials gathered and I am ready to do some serious painting. Have about half a day's worth of sanding left to do in the cockpit before I tape everything up and prime her. I have 4 days off from work coming up so confidence is high that this will happen over the Christmas weekend. The lexan sheets for the new ports also arrived on Friday so all the materials for that project is now on hand. Just need some clear skies, no wind (haha!) and a temperature over 55 degrees so the paint will dry. Until next time...Fair Winds...(and dry weather to you.)