An Actual Week (Almost!) Of Spring Boat Work! ! ! !

SHIP'S LOG:

     I blame N.O.A.A. ! If they had been a little more accurate, hell if they had been accurate at all, I would gotten an actual 4 straight days of spring maintenance done on ABISHAG. As it was, I got three and I am actually happy with that.

     The biggest project was "painting the bilge." It might seem strange to actually be all that concerned enough with a part of the boat you rarely see to actually go through the process of painting it but it actually is of great benefit.  Despite the best efforts of every boater, water (sea or fresh) and various petroleum products( lube oil, diesel & gas) end up in the bilge and slosh around until removed. One never seems to quite get it all out but merely reduces the amount to an acceptable level. Petroleum products will eventually leach into raw fiberglass and, not only stain it, but give it a "fragrance" that cannot be removed. And where the petroleum products go, water is sure to follow making the smell even worse. In addition, the right combo of water and petroleum products can create osmotic blisters which can weaken the hull. So it behooves one to remove both from the bilge.  And the best way to do it is with a paint design specifically for the purpose. It seals the fiberglass and makes it look "purrdy!"

     Of course, one cannot just "slap on the paint" and be done with it. Nope! First you have to scrape down all the surfaces to be painted to remove old flaking  paint. Next there is the obvious need to vacuum out the detritus that you have created. Then, it is necessary wash down the surface and "decrease" them as well. Any place bilge water goes, it take with it the petroleum soup from the sump and deposits it with great care. It all must go away or the paint won't adhere. Sounds a simple procedure but the bilge stretches under every bit of flooring, most of which you can really get under. There are just the hatches in the deck that are placed there to reach "important" devices and things like the water tank fill, and not just for free access to the bilge. While the interiors of boats are often marvels of innovation in the are of cramming amazing amounts of stuff into incredibly small places, easy access it one aspect of the whole concept that seems to have slipped by unnoticed. It is as though once something has been installed, the installer never conceived of the notion that it would ever have to be removed. In some case you can just shift things around, like moving hoses and wires and the like. In other cases, you just have to see how far you can stick a brush loaded with paint and how creative you can be getting in, under, around and down items that are not moving anywhere!

     It is also necessary to have a plan regarding where you start and how you will proceed with the painting. Painting oneself into a corner on a boat is a real possibility on a bot, so a pan is an absolute necessity. However, one must always remember that "Custer had a plan!" The actual worst spot is, of course, the bilge sump which is in the center of the boat, so it will be the last part attacked as everything in the bilge eventually ends up there. Thus t is that one has to work one's way from either end to the center. Scraping and vacuuming isn't to bad. Washing and decreasing is a little more difficult. Painting is a total pain. Mixing the paint and pouring it into a smaller, easier to move and use container, leads to the inevitable dripping and little grey spots and rings everywhere one paints and also in a lots of places one has no intention of painting.  I was actually able to get the whole project done without once spilling the paint. I suppose that do to the fact that I had to do it in small sections, I was able to keep paint transfer  to a minimum.

     Every part is done now except the engine bed, the section under the engine itself, and the deep sump. Those took extra time to clean and decrease. Even though I have tried to clean these two spots each year, there were always places I evidently never got to. This time, with the help of a garden sprayer and some industrial strength degreasing solvent, every spot got dosed and washed out several times. I even scrubbed them down using a serious scrub brush on the end of a paint stirrer to reach the hard to get spots. As a result I am confident that I was able to get those places 95% clean. Short of pullout the engine, which I certainly have no intention of doing, you just can't get to them. That being said, the painting of those spots will take place Monday, weather permitting. It would have  been done already, but NOAA screwed up again. They called for on and off rain all day Thursday leading to a day-long rain on Friday. Nary a drop fell on Thursday and the day was at worst "partially sunny." Friday will be a wash out. Saturday I am committed to work at TYC. Sunday will be a drying of the boat day. I am sure that water will enter the boat through the mast and the ports I left ajar to air out the boat and it will all end up in the deep sump. That has to be drained and dried before painting.

     The ports were left ajar by the way because the fumes from the bilge paint were really something. At first I didn't really notice them. heck, when you work with paints and varnishes and fiberglass resins and solvents and the like, you almost don;'t noticed the smell. Fred came by and got me to open the ports and hatches and give the boat a really good airing. That when I could actually smell how bad it was. It is all but gone now but will reappear when I do the sump. The engine bed, which is mostly unreachable, I will let slide and get by with an engine oil drip pad. One very good thing that the painting of the bilge provides is that I can now see inside the bilge to what is there. Before this, opening a hatch into the bilge. I was faced with the "Clack Hole of Calcutta." I couldn't see a lick. Now at least, I can see things which is of genuine benefit.

    In addition to that little project, there was also the greasing of sheaves and cables. There was the trimming of fiberglass hatches and hatches covers. I was able to section the cockpit grating so that it is removable. When the last owner put in the new steering pedestal and pedestal guard, he rendered the grating non-removable. Not a big deal but lots of dirt(where it comes from I don't know), leaves, screws, pieces of grating, and all sorts of other detritus found their ways into the area under the grating. Eventually, they found their way into the scuppers and in on case, clogged one. And there was just no way to really clean the area under the grating, until now. Now, it is a 30 second job at most. Pop the grating, hose it down, hose down the cockpit flooring, scoop out anything that gets trap on the scupper screens, and put the grating back Voila!  

     I am hoping that next week, I will get to the toe-rail replacement and begin the bottom painting. That would be a very good week indeed.