At Last!

SHIP'S LOG:

At last, I popped the port over the navigation station, re-bedded it and put it back in. Now I have to wait to see if the leak that was there is gone for good. It was a total pain to do it of course and took about three hours.

First, I had to unscrew all of the screws holding the port window and frame in place. There were about 12 screws and all came out rather easily . . . except for one. There is ALWAYS one that has to be a pain. Prying, unscrewing, hammering, yelling and threatening eventually got it free. Praying the frame out was harder than expected as the caulking held it firmly in place. It took a lot of leveraging with screw drivers to eventually get it to yield and come out. I discovered the cause of the leak(I think). The metal frame holding the window in place was made of two pieces , a straight lower and a curved upper. Where they joined over the nav station, the two pieces butted together but there was a separation and that was probably where the rain got in. I drilled an extra hold for an extra screw to hold it tight.

Next, I took of the inside frame, more a decorative piece than a really integral part of the port. It had two stubborn screws and two missing screws.

Next I had to scrape off all of the old caulking and spread on some new goop. Then it was merely a matter of fitting the frames back into their proper places and reinserting the screws. I even replaced the missing screws. I let you know if the three hours was worth it.

About the goop. It was black polysulfide caulking and it has a mind of its own. It seems that no matter how careful I am with the stuff it gets everywhere. I even wore rubber gloves but it still got on my hands and under my fingernails. And get one little dab on you and you tend to mark everything and every place on the boat. It is maddening and a real pain to clean up. I had to clean all the tools as well. Like I said, it gets everywhere. Still in all, the job is done and if it works, well there are only five more ports to do. You can just do one, you know!