The cover comes off today.
Not because the deck is done, but because I am being evicted from the docks and I need to move the boat out to the mooring. The club discovered the boat is too big for them to comfortably tow so I have to get it out there myself.
So we’re not talking a “butterfly emerges from the chrysalis” revelation of the beauty of the finished deck here, unless the butterfly is covered with patches of some foreign substance and finished and functional in the critical parts only.
We’ve got almost all of the deck hardware reinstalled, so unless I screwed that up we shouldn’t have any leaks. But there is a lot of sanding to do still.
On the plus side it will be cooler working without the cover, we’ll be able to move from one end of the boat to the other without scuttling like a crab, and we’ll be able to stand up anywhere.
On the down side the boats 110 power can not run a belt sander and a shop vac together – never mind two at once, we’re dead in the water every time it rains and I’m going to be a gawking spectacle for a while as all those people that have seen me shuffling around all spring damaged and disheveled will finally get a look at what I’ve been doing. And probably failed to be impressed by the way, since it still looks like hell.
Problems to solve:
My actual hope is to actually get in the boat and go somewhere next weekend, even if it is something as stupid as an overnight to Dutch Harbor on Jamestown. More the principle of it really. But I’ll have water, an engine, a genset, and a head this week – how much more work to get the refrigeration going and some sails bent on? I’ve got to put the main on anyway because the sound of the naked furler clanging around in the mast every time a boat goes by is driving me insane.
While the idea of sitting in Block Island’s salt pond working a belt sander on the deck while the family goes to the beach isn’t too appealing it sure beats staying home.
