Penn Throws in the Towel
Lunch time in the boatyard
We're making lots of progress on the boat, but my body is paying a high price. It now looks like we'll be back in the water by the third week in March. If I survive.
Sunday, February 24th through Thursday, February 28th 2013 – Ensenada
Some day off. As usual, we had a thousand errands to run on Sunday. We hit Costco and Home Depot on the other side of town. We had to go to the ATM machine for cash. We stopped for groceries. By the time we were done it was dark and, as usual, we were worn out.
I took the day off on Monday because I just didn’t have another day of work in me. Dawn reported for duty and sanded and painted.
Tuesday I got back to work. Dawn had put the initial coat of teak oil on the forward cabin and it looked like crap. The wood just wasn’t clean enough and all we got was a dirty brown finish. Back to the drawing board. While I was busy stripping varnish off of the aft cabin, Dawn had enough of my methods. She grabbed the sander and started sanding the old varnish surface. What do you know?
Not only did she remove the varnish faster, but she sanded down through the ugly gray surface to the good clean teak.
“Is it OK if I sand the forward cabin?” she asked.
OK, OK, it was a great idea. She started sanding the ugly brown area that I was thinking we’d have to subject to several more applications of bleach and viola! She got down to blonde wood.
Taking up her idea, I grabbed a sander and started sanding the aft cabin. Now we were making progress, but I had a problem.
My back and knees were killing me. By lunch I could hardly walk. Dawn suggested I go to Guillermo and ask for help with the sanding project.
I threw in the towel.
I just can’t do this.
Every night I hurt so badly I can’t sleep and the evenings are just a bout of pain in the leather arm chair. OK, I gave up. I asked for help.
On Wednesday morning Jaime and a helper showed up and sanded the hell out of the aft cabin. The boat was covered in saw dust, but the wood was looking good.
While they sanded, I worked with the dinette lights. When I first restored the 12 volt electrical system, the lights worked. Then poof, they all went out.
I crawled around in the bilges tracing wiring trying to figure out why they didn’t work. I finally followed the wires to a bus panel that I didn’t understand. I decided that it would take a better electrician to me to figure it out.
Once again, Guillermo had Carlos at the boat in the afternoon and it didn’t take him any time to find a corroded bus panel inside the wall that I didn’t see. He replaced it and we had lights. I wonder what other little surprises I’ll find as time goes on?
Thursday was a mass of sawdust. Dawn worked in the cabin restoring the companionway ladder and I did small projects while Jaime produced more saw dust than the Dust Bowl. He was the Tasmanian Devil with a sander.
While the saw dust flew, I removed the large deck box from the after deck so that we can get in and see the extent of the damage to the after deck.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. KC made two huge laminated blocks on which the davits are mounted. For those of you not familiar with the term, davits are the booms that hang over the square end of the boat on which we hang the dinghy. There are electric winches on each davit to raise and lower the dingy.
When we hit the rock, the boat heeled way over on her port side and the davit smashed into the rock. They are anchored so solidly to the deck that the davit didn’t give, but the deck cracked around the block under the davit. Water came pouring in the cracks.
I looked closely at the damage and it does not appear to be structural. We just need to seal the cracks to keep the water out.
That was a major relief. The last thing I want to do is to tear the concrete out of the deck and re-cement it.
So progress is being made. When Jaime gets done with the sanding, I will bleach the teak and we’ll slap a bunch of coats of Deks Olje on it. Then Dawn can re-paint the cabin and cockpit. By the time the boatyard gets done with their repair work, we’ll have the Victory looking better than when we left Seattle.
Sunday, February 24th through Thursday, February 28th 2013 – Ensenada
Some day off. As usual, we had a thousand errands to run on Sunday. We hit Costco and Home Depot on the other side of town. We had to go to the ATM machine for cash. We stopped for groceries. By the time we were done it was dark and, as usual, we were worn out.
I took the day off on Monday because I just didn’t have another day of work in me. Dawn reported for duty and sanded and painted.
Tuesday I got back to work. Dawn had put the initial coat of teak oil on the forward cabin and it looked like crap. The wood just wasn’t clean enough and all we got was a dirty brown finish. Back to the drawing board. While I was busy stripping varnish off of the aft cabin, Dawn had enough of my methods. She grabbed the sander and started sanding the old varnish surface. What do you know?
Not only did she remove the varnish faster, but she sanded down through the ugly gray surface to the good clean teak.
“Is it OK if I sand the forward cabin?” she asked.
OK, OK, it was a great idea. She started sanding the ugly brown area that I was thinking we’d have to subject to several more applications of bleach and viola! She got down to blonde wood.
Taking up her idea, I grabbed a sander and started sanding the aft cabin. Now we were making progress, but I had a problem.
My back and knees were killing me. By lunch I could hardly walk. Dawn suggested I go to Guillermo and ask for help with the sanding project.
I threw in the towel.
I just can’t do this.
Every night I hurt so badly I can’t sleep and the evenings are just a bout of pain in the leather arm chair. OK, I gave up. I asked for help.
On Wednesday morning Jaime and a helper showed up and sanded the hell out of the aft cabin. The boat was covered in saw dust, but the wood was looking good.
While they sanded, I worked with the dinette lights. When I first restored the 12 volt electrical system, the lights worked. Then poof, they all went out.
I crawled around in the bilges tracing wiring trying to figure out why they didn’t work. I finally followed the wires to a bus panel that I didn’t understand. I decided that it would take a better electrician to me to figure it out.
Once again, Guillermo had Carlos at the boat in the afternoon and it didn’t take him any time to find a corroded bus panel inside the wall that I didn’t see. He replaced it and we had lights. I wonder what other little surprises I’ll find as time goes on?
Thursday was a mass of sawdust. Dawn worked in the cabin restoring the companionway ladder and I did small projects while Jaime produced more saw dust than the Dust Bowl. He was the Tasmanian Devil with a sander.
While the saw dust flew, I removed the large deck box from the after deck so that we can get in and see the extent of the damage to the after deck.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. KC made two huge laminated blocks on which the davits are mounted. For those of you not familiar with the term, davits are the booms that hang over the square end of the boat on which we hang the dinghy. There are electric winches on each davit to raise and lower the dingy.
When we hit the rock, the boat heeled way over on her port side and the davit smashed into the rock. They are anchored so solidly to the deck that the davit didn’t give, but the deck cracked around the block under the davit. Water came pouring in the cracks.
I looked closely at the damage and it does not appear to be structural. We just need to seal the cracks to keep the water out.
That was a major relief. The last thing I want to do is to tear the concrete out of the deck and re-cement it.
So progress is being made. When Jaime gets done with the sanding, I will bleach the teak and we’ll slap a bunch of coats of Deks Olje on it. Then Dawn can re-paint the cabin and cockpit. By the time the boatyard gets done with their repair work, we’ll have the Victory looking better than when we left Seattle.