In St. Augustine News

Wednesday January 30, 2013

 

Since I’ve been a little lax on what Matt has been up to in St. Augustine, here is the report I received from him tonight.

The boat is trashed!  I’ll try to straighten it out before you come tomorrow.  I don’t even have a place to sit inside the boat right now.  I’ll be sleeping on the floor tonight…. It is that bad.

I just finished grinding the fiberglass. I used tarps to block the dust, but I still spent over two hours wiping the entire boat down.  There is dust everywhere, and it is really itchy!  I had to empty the vacuum three times just to get all of it.

I only got the tabs ground on the area where the fridge compressor is, the water tank area, bilge by the mast, and the settee by the bulkhead to the v berth ( where the tv is). I still have to do under the stove and sink, but may save that for another day.  Today was miserable!   It was so hot under the tarp I thought I was going to pass out.  I couldn’t see half the time because of the dust, and the grinder couldn’t reach in some spots do I had to use the dremel… Which isn’t large enough to do much.  I also cut through the fiberglass by the bilge pump into the cabin floor.  Its a small spot, but still noticeable, and I’m not sure how I’m going to fix it.

The microwave is 90% in.  I still need to do trim work (which i will have to make by hand)  mount a new 110v plug in that area, and mount bumpers to prevent the microwave from sliding back into the cabinet when the door is shut.  Because of the slope The worst it looks crooked in the cabinet.  It 100% level and perfect 90 degree corners, but with the slope of the cabin top, it looks really twisted.  Ugh!

The engine bay is about 3/4 of the way painted.  I can’t get into the aft cabin to paint the back area yet, but at least the front is done.  The steps will still be out when you get back… It’s a small jump to get down.*

I talked to the keel bolt guy from California and let him know that we wouldn’t be needing him anymore.  The costs were just jumping up too much, and he (building keels and knowing all about them) didn’t really think that him coming all the way out here was necessary anyway.  He gave me some really great tips though on how we should be able to work with the yard to do the job ourselves.

What do you think about keeping the hot water heater?  We haven’t used it yet and it takes up a 3x3x3 space that could be used for other items.  I’m not sure if we will ever use it, but I also don’t want to wish we still had it either.   We could always get one of those solar showers that everyone uses the time we want hot water, and that works without running the engine.

Also, what about the sink in the v berth?  If we got rid of that I think we could get much better use out of that space.

So it looks like Matt has been pretty busy while I’ve been away.  Things are finally progressing, and with any luck, we might actually be out of here in a few weeks!

*I found out from Matt that it was absolutely necessary for the engine to come out with the transmission.  The yard knew what they were talking about, and we were lucky we listened to them.

(Also, when I talked before about the fiberglasser, he was not part of the yard, just a vendor.  Everyone here at the yard has been very helpful and quick with their work)

Tags: No tags

6 Responses

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.