Gremlins In The Goop!!!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I was warm and sunny and was a great day t be outside. A good thing to as I had several caulking projects to attend to. Caulking is ever fun as it is always messy despite and in spite of whatever precautions  and preparations you take. The easiest projects were the four stanchion bases that had to be caulked, but even these were a bit messy. I had to put tape around the bases so that I could force the "goop" under and around them creating a decent seal.There is no tool to d this, only fingers will do the trick.  So I had to wear rubber gloves to keep the "goop" off my hands as I did the work. The stanchions were on the far edge of the back deck so they were relatively out of the way, but it didn't seem to matter as I still got fingerprints of goop on several unintended places.

But this was child's play compared to sealing the two seams. Sometimes you need more than one person for a job, like the time I had to hold up the ceiling in the aft cabin with my feet while I screwed it back in place At other times, one person seems like too many. Caulking the seams was one such time.

After outlining both edges of the seams,  had to spread the goop. It has the consistency of peanut butter. I had to put down  bead in the seam and then force it into the seam with a putty knife, spreading it over the edges of the  seam and onto the masking tape. You want the goop o extend beyond the seams so that as the deck flexes it doesn't pull away from the edges of the seam defeating the whole caulking effort. Due to the configuration of the deck,I literally had to sit on the panel and caulk the seam around me. It is something akin to painting oneself into a corner.  And of course, moving around on this too large/not large enough panel, I got  goop on my hands and arms and shorts and transferred it to every place I moved. The only two good things: 1.) the seams were righteously sealed; 2.) I used white colored caulk, as opposed to black, which meant that random goop placement was not so obvious.

Before leaving for the day, I ran a line of erasable marker inside the boat at every place leaks had indicated their presence. Today, it is suppose to pour and if any of the former leaks are still active, the marker lines will show them. Wednesday will tell the tail!