Continuing work

This was the view of the repaired bulwarks on Monday evening. Julian had filled all the gaps with linseed putty, which in theory needed 30 days before it could be sanded down and painted over. We gave it 2, then Alex began to paint over on Thursday, getting on one coat of grey metallic primer, one of Pre-Kote, and one of Toplac before we left on Saturday lunchtime. I shall have to see what state it is in by the Autumn!

The rest of Alex's jobs are less problematic. Robinetta's hull above the water line got all necessary coats back in October, so should be good and hard for the upcoming season. This week below the waterline got all bare wood (of which there was very little) coated with three coats of primer, then a full coat of anti-foul.

Meanwhile Worm got 2 coats of Woodskin inside and out, plus two coats of underwater primer and a layer of antifoul.

Julian tidied up the wiring in the cockpit locker, and the hanging locker with some trunking, then spent a good bit of time trying to make the  depth gauge communicate with the tablet that holds our back up electronic charts. If anything goes wrong with the chart plotter we have no way of knowing our depth at the moment (I keep thinking we should get a sounding line...)

Julian also fixed the mast head light, so our all round white light is back in commission. It was too cold outside to do anything else to the mast, so he removed one of the deadeyes to work on at home. It cracked in 2014, and we brought it home then to glue back together with epoxy. This glue has now partially failed, so Julian is thinking of making a new one.

Looking inside the hanging locker at the hull makes it very obvious that this is the one area of Robinetta that has not been painted since we bought her. It makes an interesting comparison with the rest of the hull! The wood is dry and solid, just very awkward to get at.

Meanwhile with the paint on the other side of the cabin all touched up I installed the work surface and put the rest of the galley back together.

Work surface and sink back in place

crockery rack re-installed

First gimbal in place, plus the tea/sugar shelf

Stove on its gimbals

Stove in its normal use position

I do not know how often we will use the gimbals, but having them, and a pan holder to hold the kettle in place, makes me more confident about making tea when under way.

The port holes facing onto the foredeck now have their glass back, which is set into fresh mastic and sealed round. We used the same mastic as holds Robinetta's depth gauge in place so we know it's waterproof! We also used this mastic on every gap and crack in that bulkhead. The teak got ten or so coats of Deks no1 before we replaced the glass. It is very like Varnol to use, but has not gone as shiny, so I suspect we still need more layers before we put on any no 2.

Julian, Alex, and I spent over 100 hours between us working on Worm and Robinetta this week. Some of that was unproductive, trying things that did not work, cleaning up between jobs, making tea etc, but we did get a lot done.