Tuesday December 25: Merry Christmas!

We left Yesterday's Dream last Monday decorated for the holidays and flew to San Diego to spend Christmas with our daughters and son-in-law.


Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Linda, Steve, Wendy, Matt, Rebecca, Trevi and London

Leaving today for a visit to Ohio and in a week gratefully returning to the warmth of the Florida Keys :-)

Thursday December 13: Teak Repair 101

Surgery last Friday went very well. Thursday we had driven to a hotel 15 minutes from the clinic since I was to be at the outpatient desk at 7 am to check in. Definitely better than leaving Marathon at 4 am to make the 3 hour drive to the clinic!

The wait for the surgery etc. was longer than we thought it would be but we were still back to the boat by 5 pm.

It was very nice to be welcomed home with flowers and chocolates - thanks to Sharon on Stevedore. She is always so thoughtful :-)

The work has stopped for me for the time being but Steve continues.

Before we drove north Steve decided the headlights on the cruiser needed attention. Seems that we rarely drive at night down here so old yellowed headlights are not a big deal.   

 But if we were held up with my surgery and ended up needing to come back after dark it would not have been pretty!


So he bought a kit to restore the plastic. 4 steps to polish and clean using the drill. It actually worked great! Now if someone would just wash that car :-)

Talk about that good feeling you get when a dramatic change happens that is so visible!

On to the next job: fix the last remaining damage from Hurricane Irma. There was just one more rather small chunk out of the gunnel teak that just didn't get done last year - definitely very low on the priority list compared to the whole front port railing being gone!

Steve has learned a LOT about how to fix this kind of damage from Randy on Love You More. He and Cindy are still up in the frozen tundras of Ontario but they will be headed this way before too long. Randy will be impressed with how well his student Steve had done :-)

Use jig saw to remove bad piece

Step 1: Use the multi tool saw to remove the damaged area

Fill seam with epoxy and sawdust mixture.

Step 2: Screw the new wood on and fill the seam with a mixture of slow cure epoxy and sawdust.

Sand smooth. Repeat.

Step 3: sand smooth. Fill and repeat until it looks great!!

In the meantime Sharon has been working away with the final sanding of the gunnel teak and Steve has taped the wood off - getting ready for the final step: multiple layers of the cetol finish!!

This will have to wait for the weather to get a bit warmer though.

It's been unseasonably cool for the last few days with strong north-west winds. Of course when I say cool, I use the term loosely as cool means it was in the 60's :-)

Gary, Karen, Linda, Sharon and Stephen

But it was cold enough to force docktails to take place on the flybridge - with a small heater to add a little warmth to cut those north winds!

Steve and Skip.

Sure am happy that the last thing Steve 'made' me construct in the basement of our house were the pieces for the flybridge plastic!







Natalie joined us as well :-)

Wednesday December 5: Happy Birthday!

Today is Steve's birthday! There will be a celebration dinner tonight but right now it's docktail time so he's up on the flybridge putting the plastic enclosure up.

It's quite windy and cool (can you say jeans?) but then it's going to be like this for the next week so might as well have someplace to hide from the wind :-)

This past week has again been one of mostly working on the teak and a couple of other projects.

Sharon with heat gun and scraper.

       Once the teak has been sanded, it's time for the Cetol to be put on. Three coats so far on the port railings - maybe more to come. Sharon says she puts 6 coats on so maybe that's what we'll (translate: Steve) will do. The teak on Stevedore always looked good!

Sharon has been back and working like a lady possessed. I just don't understand how it can be that much fun as she terms it. I mean I get that the results of your work are so visible but still .....

Maybe some day I will long for that sense of accomplishment but in the meantime? Welcome aboard, Sharon :-)






Another major project started was the repair of a soft spot in the walk around deck. Something else that was done 10 years ago!

Steve working on covering the
decks in 2008.

The original teak decks on the boat were so sanded down and leaking beyond repair that we decided to simply cover the decks with plywood and fiberglass.

It had worked well but at some point water was able to make it's way into the plywood with the result being a few soft areas in the deck. One spot in particular needed to be repaired.

First step then was to grind and cut the fiberglass and rotted plywood. Next seal the cut edges with JB Waterweld to seal the cut edges of the plywood.

Since this is a work in progress, we'll update when the next step in the process (fiberglassing) begins. Maybe next week!

Meanwhile the bases of the stools in the cabin were showing the effects of the saltwater environment - very rusty.

Solution? Clean with steel wool and spray paint.

Like new :-)

And if that wasn't enough, I finally finished all of the new screens for the windows and Steve put on the snaps.

He did a nice job fitting the covers so there weren't any sags or wrinkles in the finished product!



They look so much better :-)

And Sharon continues working her way around the boat - now at the sanding phase. The first phase was to use a heat gun and scraper to remove the old finish.

But it's not all work and no play! Steve was able to go out fishing two days this week!

It always depends on the winds as to whether or not he goes. If it's less than 5 mph - off he goes. For the next week and a half there will be no fishing as the winds will be over 10 mph.

Go when you can is what I say - work on the boat will wait :-)
     

Pretty good two days of fishing although he couldn't fish in his favorite spot because of the shark again.

Talk about a freeloader! It waits until the fish is hooked - then the shark can easily catch and eat it :-)







So tomorrow the Clinic will call and let me know when to be there for my thumb surgery. Hopefully I'm scheduled early in the day on Friday - we can go up on Thursday, go to a show and spend an enjoyable night at a hotel near the Clinic.