Summertime on Kent Island: 7/2 - 7/4

—Blogpost written by Bob 

Friday, July 2  

A big thunderstorm blew through the marina last night.  The wind was so strong that it knocked our plant from the helm seat onto the cockpit floor.  Even though our forepeak tent made it feel like we were going to take flight, it stayed in tact.  The high wind almost blew our dock cart in the water--at a short break in the storm, Maggie took it back to land.  Later in the night the rain continued but the thunderstorm had dissipated.

This morning it was still raining lightly when we woke up and it was expected to continue until 11 AM.

We started out the day by visiting our local True Value Hardware store and selecting paint and painting supplies.  We preferred oil-based paint since we were painting over varnished wood.  (I know there are ways of using latex paint but I didn't feel it would hold up as well on the boat.)  True Value obtained a great color match using their computer and a lid of one of our dining table compartments.  Because of state environmental reasons (which I don't understand and may be an excuse not to carry more paint in inventory), the only oil-based paint we could get was in a gloss finish.  Even though we wanted a semi-gloss, we decided to give it a try.

The label on the quart of custom mixed
paint from True Value Hardware.

Saturday, July 3

The outside temperature was only 65 degrees when we got ourselves out of the v-berth this morning, headed for a high of only 73 degrees!  An absolutely beautiful day--more like April or May than July!

First thing in the morning, we gathered loose throw pillows and nearby salon cushions to take them to the car so we had more room to work.  Then we removed our TV and the little stereo speakers so that we could work on the complete starboard side of the bulkhead at one time--this would save us a couple days time over doing it separately.  While Maggie took her morning exercise walk, I taped off everything that wasn't supposed to be painted and then lightly sanded all surfaces with 220-grit sandpaper.  Most of the sanding was done by hand.

 

What the starboard bulkhead looked like
this morning after taping and sanding.
(Only the immediate area around
the intended opening was
primed at this point.)

Maggie took over with cleaning the sanded surfaces with mineral spirits and then with TSP.  When it was dry, she began applying the (oil-based KILZ) primer with a good brush.  Meanwhile I started to work on the pattern frame used to make the teak frame and for use as a template to cutout the contour of the opening.  I finished the pattern frame and when I went to assemble the teak frame I realized that I had one inside corner and three outside corners--duh, this clearly wasn't going to work!  So, we drove back to Fawcetts in Annapolis to exchange the three outside corners for three inside corners but we had to order them since they were out of stock.  This situation pretty much stopped my portion of this project, at least until the correct corners arrive.

By the end of the day, we got two coats of primer on the starboard bulkhead.  We removed the blue masking tape after the second coat of primer was applied.  (We intend to re-tape it for the two top coats.)

The starboard bulkhead after two
coats of primer were applied.

Sunday, July 4

Fortunately another nice day was in store for us, though a bit warmer than yesterday.

A clear sky and lots of sunshine
was in store for our July 4th.

I marked the outline of the cutout in the starboard bulkhead and began to cut at about 8:30 AM.  I used a Fein saw and did four plunge cuts near the radius and then used a dermal tool with a sander bit to smooth the edges into the shape of a quarter circle.  It was slow going but the cutout was too close to the wall to use my jigsaw.  By 10:15 AM the hole was completely cut out.

The cutout with the rounded corners was
completed within about 1-1/2 hours.

We sanded the second coat of primer with 220-grit sandpaper to remove brush marks and then wiped down the surface with mineral spirits before applying the first coat of topcoat.

The starboard bulkhead after the first coat
of topcoat.  (You can see how
good the color match was.)

We ended our work day at about 2 PM after removing all the masking tape and cleaning up the area.  We were very pleased with the color match and the glossy paint.  (Tomorrow we will apply the second coat of topcoat to complete the painting on the starboard bulkhead.  We decided to pull off all the masking tape at the end of the day and apply new masking tape before we paint again tomorrow.)  

Five Years Ago on this Date

We were in the middle of a shakedown cruise on this boat in preparation for cruising to the Bahamas in the Fall.  We were docked in Crisfield, Maryland for the Fourth of July celebration.

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