Dispatches from the Boatyard #7
Today, Mike took an easy day and moved stuff temporarily onto Call Lily because we can move straight from one AirBnB to another because of timing and I organized and catalogued our sanding supplies. Yesterday, Mike finished applying the first of 2 coats of primer to the deck, cockpit, and cabin tops (basically everything above the cap rails.) Yay!
Channing's surgeries went well. There was only meant to be one, but a complication involving blood clots in both her lungs developed late this week. Luckily, Shelby trusted her intuition and got Channing right to the hospital. Mike's been in boatyard just about every day, except for a quick overnight to Tucson to pick up fairing compound.
Sanding, sanding, vacuuming and washing, fairing, sanding, stripping the cap rails (because we ran out of fairing compound), stripping, sanding, filling, sanding, vacuuming and washing down, fairing, fairing, sanding, sanding, vacuuming and wiping down (again), priming, priming, priming, priming, and organizing pretty much summarizes the last couple of weeks.
A highlight was having Cameron and Jacob from Tucson helping me with the final preparation and first coats of primer. We got so much done so fast and still managedto enjoy some great meals and hang out time together. We have room in the AirBnB if anyone else wants to come spend some time doing boat work. There is lots of sanding and painting yet to come over the next month.
We also said goodbye to a half a dozen boats who finished up their time in the yard and headed back out the Gulf of California. The community in the Cabrales Boat Yard is really great and we have made and grown lots of cruising relationships while we are here.
The pictures below show the progression and transformation from a deck in a sorry state to one that looks pretty darn spiffy even with only one coat of primer. The next steps are to sand the primer, apply the second coat of primer, sand, first coat of paint, sand, second coat of paint. We are using what is called a "2-part" paint which is like an epoxy where you mix paint and a hardener (actually, it's called a converter) together right before you apply it. You now have an hour or so before it cures to get it applied. So we mix small batches of about a pint/half liter per person at a time. Painting the surface you are standing on and leaning against is quite a challenge. We can't just paint our selves into a corner and step off because the paint has to be applied 3 times with an hour wait in between to make each coat. So, we painted it patchwork style to make room to get around and to stand while painting. This is also why it took 4 days to apply the first coat. We mixed up 3 (larger) pots the first day, then 6, 8, and 10 the next 3 days.
Tomorrow, Mike is off to Tucson for a few days to see family, pick up supplies, attend a meeting at the middle school, and bring Shelby back! It will be great to have our little crew/team back together again after 3 weeks apart.
