We are finally done painting our bow section..oouff…but that’s only a little part of the whole, we have to keep going. We are sandblasting and painting the boat in parts, this was a first step of many. Not having a real shelter over the hull, we decides not to blast anymore than we can reasonably do in a day, about 500sqft per go on the interior. It does split fairly well. We just did our bow section, will next move on to the under deck of the main section, than the inside of the sides of the hull and finally the bottom plates and bilge. That will be it for this fall, it will allow us to insulate our living accommodations and hopefully get working on woodwork this winter. The aft section (engine room, navigation and storage) still needs metal work and only be blasted next year. The deck and topsides will be done when all the interior is finished and we are ready for the outside woodwork. The hull will be blasted when the boat is ready to be launched, it will be the last step of a long journey.
The clean painted bow. This is actually before the final white coat. We alternate coat colors to make it easier paint.
The sandblasting of the bow was not easy. To start with, it’s a small volume and the air saturates quickly with sand; then, over the tank I did quite have standing room, meanwhile the rest of it is really high. I will always find something to complain about when it comes to sandblasting but believe (hope) the rest of it will be much easier…well, maybe not the stern, that will be a piece of hell.
A full moon morning. I actually enjoy getting up early, the morning has something very peaceful and often pretty about it.
We knew it was going to be a long day so we tried to start as early as the dew would allow. Anyway, it’s not like starting early means getting up earlier than normal these days. For the past few month we’ve had what we call Murphy o’clock, Murphy being the new kitten. Some mornings we get woken up by purrs others by cat attacks, never less it’s always at 5:30 in the morning. No need to say that Murphy is back to bed by 8.
Murphy believes in going to bed late, getting up early, but not into working too hard. Smart boy!
Anyway, back to the boat business. We have been doing blasting rounds of 40 minutes with the intent of Mark and I switching at the hose each time. For some awkward reason, I’m very possessive of work and have a hard time giving it up. I managed to convince Mark to let me go for 3 for 4 rounds before passing it on to him. Not having a dead man handle on our hose someone needs to stand by the pot ready to stop and start it when needed. So when Mark took his turn in the sand storm I took mine at the pot. There, Mark had installed a comfy chair in the shade of the yellow john deer sunbrella. I sat on the chair for a couple minutes, staring at the sand pile beside me, when the idea occurred that laying in the warm sand would be a gazillion times cozier than sitting on the chair. So I did. I was keeping my hand on the blasting hose as the feel of the sand going threw is a good indicative of any troubles or of the pot getting empty. I quickly realized that I could feel the hose and do my job just as well if I closed my eyes, then….I don’t remember anything…I was woken up by the banging in the hull when Mark ran out of sand, I had literally crashed into the best power nap ever!
Tell me that sand pile doesn’t look cozy…
The day went on and, like usual, it seems like we finished later than planned, we literally made it minutes before sunset and “dew-rise”. It was a bit of a rush to get the cover-all up over the boat before heading to the house for some dinner….not sure which of the two was most urgent.
I like eating well. I can give up lots of comforts but not my food so I plan some good ready meals for those kind of long days. This time I had a fridge full of chili, spaghetti sauce and couscous all made with love for me by me (and Mark, of course 🙂 ) the day before, mmmmmmm.
With our belly full going to bed felt pretty appealing but we went back out to start the clean up. Most of it was done by midnight. Mark installed a few heaters to keep dew away from our clean steel and we went to bed……Murphy o’clock wasn’t many hours away.