What started as a long Thanksgiving weekend project turned into a 3 week project, due to weather, fume-induced sickness, added tasks such as reefing out old seams and putting in new cotton and seam compound, and attempts at perfection, which are near impossible on an old wooden boat.
Rick twirls the cotton to be pounded into the seams.
Some of High Country's seams had very little cotton left and seam compound that flaked away with a touch. That would explain the excessive leaking when on port tack last summer. Here, Rick uses a caulking mallet to pound in new cotton, to be followed with a soaking of red lead paint, then some seam compound.
Notice the very clear, blue-green water, almost Caribbean-like.
A nice day on the sunny side of the boat finds us having a quick lunch of jalapeno, chicken, potato soup before putting the first coat of bottom paint over the thin coat of red lead paint.
We like to use different colors for each coat of bottom paint for two reasons. The first reason is that then you are less likely to have "holidays" as you're painting and the second reason is then you can see when each coat has worn away and it's time to repaint.
We finished just in time. It snowed a beautiful snow the next day.
View of Vineyard Haven Harbor.
No pictures of High Country "splashing" because I was subbing in school when she slid back down the railway. She'll sit at a town mooring for the rest of winter, along with the rest of the wooden fleet, of which there are many here.
Next project: wooding the masts.
2 comments:
You guys constantly amaze us. What a huge amount of work, but it looked to us like you did it in record time. We were hauled out for nine weeks once and I don't think we accomplished all that you did. How about the recipe for that jalapeno/chicken/potato soup, Jenny? The Story of Stuff was excellent: great graphics and a great remind for everybody. We're carless and TV-less, and very happy to be so.
Cheers and Happy New Year,
Kitty and Bob
You know what I miss about the open seas? Is it the salt spray in my face? The smell of fresh, ocean air? Nah, it's Jenny's Key Lime Pie and Rick's jokes. Sure, the jokes and pie might be available on land, but somehow they just go better with wind and waves - particularly around the Virgins.
But your last blog was months ago - where are they now?
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