Remembering What I Forgot!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

Doing all this work on ABISHAG is wonderful for remembering all sorts of things I used to know well but have forgotten over the years. It took a long time over the years when to know and really believe that that nut/bot/screw is actually tight enough. Of course, it took many a fastener going TWANG and needing to be replaced after my giving it "just one more turn" for the lesson to finally sink in. After all, if use shows it is not tight enough, you can always tighten it some more later.

You tend to fasten a lot of things on a boat, so the lesson gets a lot of re-enforcement. The same can not be said for fiberglass work. Glassing over the LPG Locker extension proved that all too well. I really thought I had that one bagged. In one of the storage containers I have for boat stuff, I had two quarts of polyester resin and hardener. Three different types of fiberglass and all the mixing tubs, sticks, rollers, brushes and gloves needed to build a boat let alone simply glass over the LPG Locker extension. These items were left over from re-decking the O'Day 27 I used to own two boats ago and since it had been a good ten years since that time, I decided to proceed very carefully and do just the exterior of the locker inside the boat.

I mocked up the glass pieces; sanded the area; put down a plastic tarp; laid out the tub, mixing sticks, the resin and hardener; even checked the temperature. I gloved up and mixed the first batch of resin, wetted out the glass and laid it in place. There is nothing like fiber glassing. To paraphrase Robert Duval in "APOCALYPSE NOW," "I love the smell of styrene in the morning. It smells like victory." I waited 15 minutes and found that the resin was still wet. It didn't seem to be kicking at all so I gave it another 25 minutes. But nope, it was still wet. I figured that perhaps the temperature was a little to low for the mixing ratio and I decided to wait overnight.

The next day the cabin was still filled with that "victory" smell but alas, the resin was still wet. My hope against hope, that it would kick and cure overnight was all for naught. I had to rip out the still wet fiberglass and toss it in the trash, clean off the old resin and prepare the sight again. Then it was cut more fiberglass, mock it up, mix the resin -doubling the hardener to resin ratio, wet out the glass, lay it in place and wait 20 minutes. Still wet and so another 20 minutes and it was still wet. Now I found this puzzling and so I called Jerry Schmitt who was my instructor at the Chapman School.

Me: Jerry I can't get my fiberglass resin to kick.

Jerry: Mix the right ratio?

Me: Yes.

Jerry: Did you try doubling it?

Me: Yes, still nothing.

Jerry: The temperature wasn't too cold was it?

Me: Nope. Check it with a thermometer.

Jerry: (Long thoughtful pause) What type of resin...polyester, vinylester or epoxy?

Me: Poly.

Jerry: How old is it?

Me: Ten years, give or take.

Jerry: Polyester resin is good for 6-7months, a year tops. Toss it and the hardener too. It's gone bad.

Me: But I never opened it.

Jerry: It goes bad in the can!

Jerry was very good as he didn't mention that somewhere in voluminous amount of material we covered at Chapman's, he had mentioned that point at least once. Modern chemistry and the sailor's habit of pack-ratting collided. Thee carefully saved resin, two cans no less,plus the tubes of hardener went into the trash and now I must make another purchase and do the whole glassing project all over again. "I hate the smell of styrene in the morning..in the afternoon..in the evening...anytime"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the "good"side of things, Tony and I worked out the arrangements for the installation of the watermaker. Actually, the set up is rather simple but it is plumbing and electricity and I still need help with it. The most difficult part will be fabricating a platform for the pump to sit on. The rest is really connecting the dots..."T"-ing to a water source, "T"-ing to the sink drain to get rid of the brine and into the water tank for the "good product" as the fresh water is called. Fresh water tends to be one of the those "necessary luxuries" for cruising. While you can get it "free" at most marina stops it is often heavily chlorinated in the States and you usually "pay" for it as part of the price for fuel. Outside of the States it is often more expensive than fuel and I get the impression from all the articles and books that the taste between the two isn't all that much of a spread. So being able to make one's own means at the very least self-indulgent showers!

I was able to get several more of those pesky projects done and it only cost me a chipped tooth. Doing projects on a boat, not only do you have to decide what to do and how to do it but also whether you do it from the outside in or from up above or from below. Sometimes, you have no choice but other times you do and problems come from laziness, not want to haul all the accouterments for the project from where you are to some other position. So it was that I lay in the aft cabin fighting with a couple of bolts corroded into the hatch above my head. Of course, to try and break the corrosion I was using penetrating oil. Oil is slippery and gravity works and I learned one should never try to catch a wrench with you mouth when it slips of the nut above your head. Actually, I am luck for it does not seem that the tooth is severely damage. It will probably only need to be "fared" a bit to look esthetically pleasing. What are the odds of that?

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

Time is getting short. Not for the departure to take place but til the departure takes place. I was checking things out yesterday and really the watermaker, the wind vane steering, bottom painting and the last of the wiring are all that holds back putting the boat into the water. It sends a shiver of excitement through me to think that it is that close. There is still a ton of stuff that I "need" but nothing that I really need. And in any event, until the Bank of America demands their card back, I can always buy stuff on the way. And it is cheaper down South! Getting started, pulling away from the dock, all fueled and necessary provisions, how great is that?