Thursday July 17: Projects

Being in the Lakefield Marina has given us a chance to get one project mostly finished and another one started.

Steve's been wanting to refinish the small wood floor in the galley area ever since we bought Guppy two years ago.

Finally it was started. Not sure what to use so a trip to the hardware store produced the suggested finish: a very hard polyurethane. Sanding done, one coat on ... mmm .. not sure that was the answer. We'll need to think on that.

On to the next project: replacing the vinyl covered panel on the radar arch. This also has needed done for the last two years! We brought the vinyl with us - just needed to get the job done.

We made do with white electrical tape to cover some of the deteriorated vinyl but it still let water into this area.

Basically the vinyl covered wood panels serve the purpose of allowing wires to be run through the arch for, in our case, lights but often for an actual radar unit on a larger boat.


First step is to remove the hundreds of staples holding the vinyl to the marine plywood boards. The holes in the panels are for the stereo speakers which are mounted in the arch.

Next, lay the 3 panels in the sun on the dock so the thin foam rubber (green) and the edges of the boards can dry out.

This took overnight so it was a good excuse to take some time for a bike ride!

There is a 10 mile (one way) bike trail that goes to Peterborough. Steve and Peter rode there last week. Today we rode only to the first lock (about a mile and a half). Steve went farther because he knew where to find the red and black raspberries!

It's really a nice trail and run along the waterway with homes, farms with cattle and a large area of dedicated wetlands maintained for turtle and other wildlife.

We spotted several turtles but it wasn't really sunny and turtles do like their sun!






Water continues to be flowing at record high levels through the Trent system this year. This dam was no exception. It's nice that we are traveling downstream from here to Lake Ontario - gives us a nice push!

Today it was time to finish the radar arch project.

Next step was to rough cut the vinyl to size for the three pieces. Since it's just wrapped over the edges and then stapled, it makes it easy.

Steve did a nice job with the stapling. They must make electric ones of these, don't you think? That would have been nice.






But it wasn't long and the three panel were completed. Time to reinstall. Top first and then the two sides.

The marina gals had a small step ladder that was just perfect for the job! Definitely no room on this boat for one of those :-)




All that was left was to reinstall the speakers.

Eight screws and done.Well, almost anyway. There is still some caulking to be done to keep the rain from getting in around the edges but that is a minor job.

It's on tomorrow's list :-)

Job well done!!




Time now to watch the sun set. Maybe it's movie time tonight ......