so today started with some guys coming back asking if we where ready to be sanded yet. i was concerned we where going to be getting in trouble for taking so long so i kind of brushed them off. i would find out later the yard manager was off for carnival and they where just looking for something to do.
i spent the first half day grinding and aimee sanded. we where both pretty overwhelmed and frustrated. it was the last day before everything shut down and we had not been able to get any paint on so it looked like another 2 to 3 days after the holiday perhaps even the following week before we would be back in the water. on top of this a trop depression was heading our way and even if it was not high wind it promised to be a lot of rain making it impossible for us to get paint on. we had to put 2 to 4 coats of a two part barrier coat on before the new waterline was painted.
i finally got the hang of grinding the top layers of paint off and then sanding the last bit off and was able to get most of the transom smooth and clear of bottom paint. i also realized we could have the guys sand and paint the first coat as long as they skipped the waterline and the parts we where working on. this would allow us to add the barrier coat and a couple of bottom coats over the weekend.
i decided this revelation deserved a break and aimee and i headed over to the bar for lunch. i brought my computer and got an email about a potential contract job from tim. i put a bit of reserach into tim’s opportunity and talked to tim before heading back to palapa. if i had this call a few days earlier i might have chosen to outsourse the bottom work and put a few extra years on our life but live and learn. by the time i returned to palapa not only was the bottom sanded but they where well through the first layer of paint.
ii got back on my blister project with some renewed hope. aimee got back from the store with a ton of supplies for the hopeful painting this weekend. she made friends with the painter dudes offered them some beer and they in turn showed my how to do the epoxy properly. the key is to mix the filler and epoxy in a separate bin, keeping the epoxy separate as well. this way if you get it too thick you just add more epoxy, duhh. they also recommended an easier to sand filler more optimal for “filleting” who knew blister filling was “filleting”, another breakthrough!
these guys actually helped me spread the epoxy as well, its amazing what gets done when the yard manager is out. we even managed to get our stuff together and dingy over for our 6pm dinner on waka irie. it is great to be able to do these long trips on a planning dingy with the two off us! dinner was great but we where exhausted and had a big day tomorrow so we headed back early. will see what the weather brings over the next few days!
and most importantly sietse and jen had dropped off a full case of beer yesterday just as we drank our last beer. without it we would have been finished. see aimee’s “yard work kit” photo, beer, goggles, mask, scraper, paint and BUG SPRAY. we just hose our selves down with whatever has the most deat every few hours.
cheers Roger
“…by the time i returned to palapa not only was the bottom sanded but they where well through the first layer of paint…” (This is a trick so you can’t see how crappy the sanding went :-).