January

1st January 2008

Happy New Year all!

We have been busy bees here and there is no let-up. I've finished painting the decks - Primer, high-build epoxy, high-build with sludge aggregate and then a final coat of two-pack polyeurethane. The sludge aggregate was tricky to roll out evenly but I am pleased with the result except that I keep skinning myself on the surface! The leak in the kitchen was due to water getting under the coaming that houses the companionway hatch cover, I sanded that back to the wood and picked out the sealant, released the screws and filled the gap with epoxy resin and filler powder and have just finished priming, followed by 3 coats of high-build epoxy and a coat of 2-pack polyeurethane - one more coat and it is finished. The blue stripe down the hull has been sanded back, primed and re-painted. My preparation of the primer coat was not good enough and 'tipping' the paint horizontally does not work well and so I have re-sanded back and we are awaiting delivery of more blue paint. Repairs to peeling parts of the lower hull are complete and re-expoxied and the peeling bits of antifoul have been removed and primed ready for the antifouling. The anchor locker now has a hose attached to it to take surplus water right to the bottom of the bilge rather than letting it flow through clothes, food and tools. Windows are all in and are surprisingly watertight. Barbeque is fitted to the new steelwork at the rear. The lazarette still leaks through the lid (as do all the cockpit lockers) but there seems to be ingress of water into the boat by the nav station and so that is under investigation. The water through the lid falls directly onto the outside of the electrical panel recess and so the next job is to ensure all that is watertight by glassing it over and making sure any water is well channeled away to the bottom of the locker where there is a drain into the bilges. With the delay in blue paint, we have deferred launch until mid-Jan and so have time to get on with these 'extra' tasks. Fliss will be lifting the kitchen floor panels and sanding/varnishing them whilst I fiddle with other things. We might now have time to get the SSB installed and are going to talk with someone today about the best way to install. One autopilot fixed, one disposed-of and so I am going to look for a real cheapy as a spare that will drive the aries.

All this to be done so that when Stewart (Fliss's Brother) arrives on the 2nd Feb we can actually have a holiday and see New Zealand.