On one hand, I get a day…nay, a weekend off, to make some social obligations I was stressing over. Stressing because it would be hard to enjoy myself knowing it was sunny and warm and I should be running out caulk.
On the other hand we are completely dead in the water on the teak progress with a stretch of rain.
We’ve reached a point where we are ready to make the last run of caulk down the starboard side of the lower deck. About two person-days of work to get all the caulk complete. The grooves are sanded and cleaned with an air blower and a vacuum, every conceivable scrap of dust or crud that could prevent the caulk from bonding is out. The final step is an acetone cleaning, then in goes the caulk.
Unfortunately, you can’t caulk a wet deck. The instructions on the caulk basically read “Don’t even think about applying caulk to teak with a moisture content over 12%”. I guess that rules out standing water and puddles then.
The cover is a winter cover, it holds out snow. But not rain very well since the mast is up and the cover is pierced in many places by large bits of metal.
The other problem is the other tasks and their nature – they make, for the lack of a better word, crud. Sanding makes sawdust, so does chiseling caulk – that makes sawdust, and little scraps of excess caulk film that get everywhere and stick to everything like cling wrap. What we’ve seen so far is that crud made at the bow will find it’s way into a squeaky clean caulk-ready seam 53 feet away at the stern. As a result, I am loath to do anything that would make the remaining grooves get more sawdust and scraps of junk in them, since they must remain clean to be ready for caulking. As soon as they dry out.
And of course, you can’t sand a wet deck to well either, though I could find dry spots to work on if I wasn’t worried about loading the air with sawdust that would settle on every surface and into every open seam. I’ve tried this, it’s not worth spending the hours on your knees with a blower and vacuum again.
Once the final seams are caulked I can engage in whatever wild orgy of sawdust and caulk scrap making suits my mood. Until then though I need to keep the last bit of work area clear so, with one day of air drying I can get that caulk down quickly and move on to reinstalling the deck hardware.
If it ever stops raining.
