We went to the boat yesterday.
Not surprisingly it was a lot more fun than watching the inauguration. My chore list included sanding and painting the inside of the galley cupboards. I had no illusions about escaping this task. If painting must be to done, I’m the one who must to do it. Rich hates painting almost as much as he hates cleaning the cat box. With palm sander in hand, dust mask in place, ear plugs…plugging, I started in on this dusty job.
I’m happy to report I successfully covered the boat and myself with fine, white sanding dust. To say this job was an exercise akin to a contortionist freak show is an understatement, but after some serious knuckle busting I was able to get my freak on and finish the job. Today I am sore. I am sore in places that I had no idea were involved in the process (left calf muscle, really? And why not the right one?)
The cupboards are starting to look good, but need a second coat so I’m in for Round 2 next weekend which should be enough time for my aching muscles to recuperate. We’re using exterior enamel paint. After an hour or so I checked to see if it was starting to dry. It wasn’t. It hadn’t dried at all and I noticed some bits of dust in the wet paint. I blame Rich. He was making a mess removing the vinyl lining in one of the salon cupboards and when he started the vacuum, I’m sure he blew a bunch of crap all over the cabin. So Round 2 will also involve more sanding.
I removed the shelves from all the lockers and took them home. Some of them are really gross; stained with who knows what, sticky with bits of hair stuck to them (gag). Over the next week or so I’m tasked with more sanding and painting, but with less contortion involved, so that’s a bonus.
Originally we thought about applying a layer of tinted epoxy to all the shelves. We tested a couple shelves and while the finished product was good, it took forever and the tint doesn’t cover the scuffs like paint (I need the instant gratification paint provides). Check the projects page for more photos as this project progresses
Before we bought the boat…
I always heard people complain about how long it takes to do everything on a boat. I thought there were just a lot of complainers out there. Turns out I was right, and they are the people you hear most, because let’s face it – when researching online how to do something I’m not interested in hearing how easy it is. If someone is telling me to just do step A followed by step B and presto, I’m done! I’m skeptical to say the least. I want to hear about what went wrong and why I’m a fool to think it’s something I can do in an afternoon. Well, I don’t want to contribute to the complaining by embellishing how difficult boat tasks have been so far so I’m going to say that it’s been exactly what I expected.
While I was busy making a dusty mess and painting, Rich was goofing off tearing out the vinyl liner in one of the port salon cabinets. The vinyl lining was peeling away from the hull and there was a bunch of rust staining on the vinyl. We originally thought it was the chainplate because it’s also inside the cabinet and it’s been leaking. However, when Rich removed the vinyl it was apparent the rust was from the water deck fillport. Hopefully that will be an easy fix. He also removed the vinyl from around the chainplate and knees. He drilled a hole in the knee and it actually seems dry (shocking to say the least!)
