We are finished scraping the cabin sole, all the varnish is gone, how exciting! Here Bob and I have just discovered that teamwork really works. Usually when heat gunning by yourself, you blow super heated hot air on the boards then you put the gun down and scrape that section pick the gun up and do it again. When you put the gun down it cools off and so it takes extra seconds to heat up. With the two of us working together the gun stays on, the board stays hot and you can go about 4 times as fast. It was awesome, when Barry took this picture he commented on the fact that we were doing the job and we were co-operating there was no fighting going on!
Here is Bob getting ready to put the finishing touches on the whole floor, boy did it ever feel good to be done. Now I have to sand about half more and I want to fill in a bunch of dings that have appeared in 14 years. The staining of those patches will be the tricky part, I am not sure how close I will be able to match the colour. After that I will put the first of 8 or so coats of varnish on while the guys will polish the topsides and prepare the bottom for some touch up paint.
Here we are at sunset at the spot we arranged to have dinner with our friends. The company was great and the food was good, and the setting was magnificent. It was good to get away from the boatyard.
Yesterday we decided a little more R & R was in order and that the dinghy motor needed testing. We loaded the dinghy and the motor in Bob’s truck and went and launched it. There had been a bolt that was seized on it and Barry took it to a shop and they freed the bolt and Barry decided to have them change the oil. Well, the guy put too much oil in it, twice as much as was called for and as we chugged out of the marina, the motor started smoking. We turned around and Barry ignominiously rowed back in. He let us off at the closest dock and then rowed another 300 m back to the launching area. So much for our lovely sojourn out on the water.
The weather has been perfect, temperatures in the low 20’s during the day and mostly sunny. At night it cools right off and the trailer is not plugged in, so there is no heat and we are sleeping with 4 blankets on. It is warm and cozy in the queen sized bed, what luxury.
