It's The Little Things That Count

SHIP'S LOG:

     Yesterday was a day for doing several little things. None of major importance but things that needed to be done just the same. The largest of these was varnishing. The new caprail was stained the day before but it was yesterday that it got its three coats of varnish. It fairly sparkles. it looked so good that the rest of the caprail also got a coat of varnish as well. Right now the caprail looks very good though the new section makes the rest of the caprail look like it is in need. Perhaps next year if I still own ABISHAG, I will do the rest of the sections of the caprail though doing this section was so much fun, I am not sure that I could stand it.

     Usually I let the teak on the exterior of the boat "go grey." Rather than paint, oil or varnish it, I let it take on the natural grey of teak exposed to weather. The teak deck has been untouched by me and will remain so as you can really paint teak as the oils leach out and prevent the paint from staying long. Oiling the teak makes it look nice for awhile, but the oil attracts dirt and you have to wash the deck regularly. this removes the softer parts of the teak and it quickly becomes time to replace it. If you varnish the teak deck, it really looks sharp but any moisture turns it into a very slippery and dangerous surface. In addition, the upkeep of the varnish can be a full-time job. Just letting it "go grey" -  weathered - gives you what you most was, the best footing on  deck when you need it.

     I did however varnish the shroud rollers. These are teak tubes that en-capsule the forward two shrouds on the main mast which allow the Genoa sheets to slide easily without snagging when the boat is tacked. I didn't bother to sand them so that the varnish would give them the red-gold color of teak. The varnish in this case was merely to preserve the wood.

     I also repainted the boot-stripe, the white band just below the caprail. Varnish drips, along with Gorrilla Clue overruns from the temporary fixes to the old caprail made it look bad. So I scraped off the drips, did a little sanding and slapped on the paint. ABISHAG looks just fine.

     I found the screwdriver that the interior of the boat ate the other day. it is amazing how I can lose  stuff in such a confined space. But what the boat gives back with one hand she takes away with the other.Some how a plastic container of paint brushes has gone missing. SIGH! They will turn up again, hopefully before I am force to go out and buy more.

     One of the things that I must do every day now is cleanup. Each day when I finish up with whatever tasks are at hand, it takes about 30 minutes or so to put all the tools away in their proper paces, a tough thing sometimes when the boat hides some of them. Then it is necessary to vacuum the interior as an amazing amount of dirt finds its way aboard. The winds this spring have been rather spectacular. It is a bit unnerving at times to be sitting on ABISHAG and feel her rock ad sway in the wind. And the wind is coming out of the west for the most part which means right into the main cockpit hatch. And with it comes leaves and dust and all sorts of detritus. Left to accumulate, it will all turn into "dust rhinos" that will take a pitchfork to get rid of. The pollen has also started to fly as well and it really gets everywhere. How it gets into closed lockers is beyond me.

     Next week will be "bottom painting week" and then its a matter of waiting for the wind generator to get back from its trip to Florida.  Fred's assessment of the repair is that the repair company will charge $100 to open the box, $100 to install the $2 diode that burnt out, $100 to test it, and $100 to put it back in the box and ship it to Yankee. I tell that to everyone in the yard and they all laugh sadly, knowing from their own similar experience with marine repairs done by others, that it is too damn true!