By C45Sanctuary on 1/15/2008 12:00 AM

8am and it's raining.  There's a strog northerly wind with gusts to about 30mph.  I'm going to have to wait for the weather to improve a bit before I resume the hull project.

I tested the marine AC/Heating units last night.  The aft AC/Heating unit didn't start and it also tripped its breaker switch.  The forward unit works but it's LOUD.  I ran it for about three hours last night and got the temperature inside to 65 degrees.  It's a small unit and it had to work continuously to get there from 58 degrees.  Outside it's much colder so it was battling the wind the whole time.  Around 10:15 it started making a much louder, wierder noise, sort of like a belt slipping, so I shut it off.  The inside stayed warm most of the night.  When I woke up this morning the temperature inside was back down to 58 degrees.

4pm and it's really, really wet.  And cold.  And windy.  I've given up trying to finish this task on this trip.  All of the port side has been sanded.  Half of the starboard side, the forward half, is sanded.  The rudder is sanded to the primer on the port side, exposing the fiberglass damage that needs to be repaired.  The starboard side was sanded to expose the copper layer.

I decided to go back to my original method of sanding.  You know, the one with the Dewalt orbital sander, that was frowned upon by the old sailor last Saturday?  Well, using the Dewalt, and attaching the output to the shop vacuum, barely any dust is blown around by the wind.  I wasn't get noticibly dirty after four hours of sanding.  I was, however, freezing my ass off.  The rain was pouring down all of the areas I hadn't sanded yet.  And the forecast calls for more rain tomorrow.  Sigh.  I guess I'll head home.

By C45Sanctuary on 1/14/2008 12:00 AM

Lots of progress today.  It was COLD and windy.  A continual, strong breeze from the north.  I figured I would use that to my advantage while sanding (with the new drill attachment) by starting at the far north end of the boat, on the windward side, and work downwind.  The breeze was so strong and continual that it pushed all of my dust away in a solid stream.  By the end of the day I was barely dusty.

I took the rudder skeg all the way down to the primer.  Looked ok, but it was the one part of the boat that had a few minor blisters.  None of the blisters were more than a half inch across but I wanted to be sure to identify all damage so I could repair it correctly.

I also finished the port side of the rudder.  The rusty seepage was caused by a crack in the fiberglass.  The crack in the fiberglass was caused by expanding metal that was rusting.  The rusting metal (the support within the rudder) was caused by a crack at the very bottom of the rudder, which provided a means for sea water to soak into the fiberglass.  Well, the problem has been identified, now it'll just need to be fixed.  It isn't bad at all.  Some deep cleaning to the metal, clean / Ospho / primer it, then fill it back with fibeglass.  Barrier coats, primer, and it'll be good as new.

I then started working on the actual hull.  It's MONDAY, and I'm just now getting to the hull.  Forty five feet of it, on each side, and it's 12 feet across.  I didn't do the math on how many square feet that is, not even when I was mindlessly grinding, because I didn't want to get discouraged.

Something I did notice, however, while I was taking the anti-fouling off to the first layer of primer: The copper layer is pretty healthy.  Everywhere.  I pondered the meaning of this and what could be done (or, more precisely, what could be prudently NOT done) as a part of this bottom job.

As my sandpaper became less effective I skipped ahead and used each disc on the black areas, exposing the copper but not going any further.  Then I would return to theunderbelly of the stern when I had a new piece of sandpaper, and carefully grind away the copper to expose the first layer of primer.  Everything I saw about the under coatings was good.  They really did it right.  Lots of barrier coats, all intact, lots of primer layers at the appropriate times.  Maybe, just maybe, I could remove the black part of the antifouling and leave the copper. So, starting around 4:30, that's what I began focusing on.  By 6pm I was cold, it was almost dark, and the port side antifouling was almost done.  Wow.  Thirty linear feet in slightly more than an hour.

As I was almost ready to finish up for the night the night watchman (I wish I could remember his name) appeared.  He's been a good source of tips and information.  Friendly guy.  He lives on a boat two spots down.  I asked him his opinion on what had been done so far.  Mostly, I wanted to see if I was insane for taking the copper off to the primer, or stupid for taking the copper off in the first place.  He said that it was acceptable to leave the copper and take off the outtermost layer.  That's what most people did, and when you pay for a bottom job at a yard that's what they do.  It was good to take SOME of the areas down as far as I did just to be sure everything underneath was done right, but that it didn't all have to be taken down that far.  Well, that's a relief.  I was thinking it was going to be another two weeks of grinding before I got this task done right.

Three days of work and I'm barely half finished.  It's odd, but it seems that the last hour of every day has finished more than twice of whatever had been finished up to that point.  The first day I for about six square feet of keel finished (one half of one side of the keel).  The second day, I finished the port side of the keel, most of the starboard side of the keel, and part of the port side of the rudder.  Today, I almost finished the entire port side of the hull.  TOmorrow I might actually wrap up this task, weather permitting.

By C45Sanctuary on 1/13/2008 12:00 AM

The condensate was back this morning.  Same place.  I don't know if it was here last night. I forgot to check.  So, I cleaned it up with a sponge, then poured it outside (by way of the kitchen sink).  It was quite a bit but it wasn't so much that it was overflowing through the hole with the protruding speaker wire.  I couldn't find any condensate anywhere else inside.

I ran out and grabbed two donuts and a bottle of mile for breakfast.  When I got back at around 9:15am there was this guy getting ready to help me sand the exterior of the boat.  Oh, I guess I forgot to mention this guy yesterday.  He had asked if I wanted any help and I replied I didn't.  He really, really needed a job though, he said, and I persisted in not needing any assistance, especially at $15 an hour. So he went away.

Then, about an hour later, he was back.  Gabbing.  Talk talk talk talk talk.  Seemed to be kinda bigoted, too.  Didn't like the french people down the way.  Asked me if I was Scottish, because Scottish people were (in his opinion) tight fisted with their money.  I think he even used the "N" word once or twice even though I don't think I've ever seen a black person within 20 miles of here.  I'm trying to drone him out so I can get some work done, he's leaving, and he asks me something while he's getting back into his truck.  I guess I had agreed to hire him today and BAM ... he was gone before I realized what had just happened.

So, when I saw him today getting ready, I told him that I thought about it, and I just didn't have it in my budget to hire any help.  He was pretty upset about it, I could tell.  But I was nice about it, pleasant, tried to be as apologetic as possible, etc.  The last thing he said to me before he got back into his truck was, "You're pretty nice, for a white guy".  He sounded like he meant it, too, which is just odd as hell because he was whiter than I am.

So, I started grinding away at the keel using that 7 inch disc sander.  It was totally kicking my ass.  I had a hell of a time controlling it.  It was tough enough keeping it over the spot I was sanding without it going too deep into the many layers of primer and sealer.  I finally gave up and returned it to the french crew.

I said, "I have to get something smaller.  I'm too much of a pussy to use this thing."  They though that was just hilarious, that a guy like me would call himself a pussy.  Or maybe they though it funny that an American would tell the truth.  Whatever the reason they took an instant liking to me.

There are four people working on that boat.  I discovered that they're actually from Quebec, with the exception of the younger wife who is a lawyer from Los Angeles.  Younger french guy is named Steve and the American wife is named Monique.  Odd reversal of names-to-nationalities.  Steve, and his dad, both speak English fairly well but with an obvious french accent.  Steve's mom doesn't speak English.  From what I could figure out, the parents thought they were comming down to have a vacation for a week or so and ended up being slave labor.  Oh, the joys of boat maintenance.  Speaking of which, I realized my boat maintenance tasks had ground to a halt.  Or, to be more precise, the grinding halted.  I needed a new tool.  Off to Lowes I went.

I ended up buying a sanding disc attachment for a drill.  It took 5 inch sanding discs.  Back at the boat it worked like a charm.  About as fast as the 7 inch sander, maybe faster, and it didn't kick my ass.  I was peeling through layers of paint on the rudder when the disc suddenly stopped spinning.  The sanding attachment was made from cheap plastic and it basically melted near the middle.  What a piece of crap.  And it only lasted about 45 minutes, too.  DAMN.  MOTHER FUCK.  I am never going to get anything done here.  Back to Lowes.

Lowes didn't have any METAL attachments for drills, but they did have deck grinders (4.5 inch disc grinders, using fibeglass discs or metal discs for grinding metals).  Thee deck grinders at Lowes were all absurdly priced.  All of the models on display were $50 or more.  However scanning the shelf below, I noticed one model was $25.  Then, next to that one, was a Black and Decker model for $15.  BAM.  New tool acquired.  I grabbed some sanding discs for that kind of grinder.

The grinder worked well for a bit, then the first disc suddenly shredded.  I replaced it and kept working.  Ten minutes later it shredded too.  Replaced it with my third and final disc.  Another ten minutes, another shredded disc.  Just as well, it was almost 6pm.

I was so dirty from the day's grinding (what little was done, anyway) that I decided on getting a hotel room so I could have a very long, hot shower.  It took three showers to get clean.  I looked like I was in blackface, or like a coal miner finishing a shift.  I would have taken a picture but I forgot the camera on the boat.

I went to Wal-Mart to see what tools they had.  THEY HAD A METAL SANDING ATTACHMENT FOR A DRILL!  Fuck yeah.  $6.  I didn't even need sandpaper because I had some from the day before. I grabbed a few other items then headed back to the hotel room.

By C45Sanctuary on 1/12/2008 12:00 AM

Long assed day and I didn't seem to get much accomplished.  I began work on the port side of the keel.  First, I tried using the Dewalt random orbital sander.  It cut through the first layer of black grime prety easily, but that next layer is a BITCH.  It's copper.  Maybe a sixteenth of an inch thick.  I need to get it out of the way so I can see what condition the iron keel is in.  Everything I've read about iron keels says "don't use copper anti-fouling" unless you do a hell of a lot of prep work beforehand.  Like, a crapload of primer, in many layers, with layers of other stuff between the primer layers.  Otherwise the copper will react with the iron in the keel and cause massive amounts of corrosion.

The Dewalt sucked and some guy down at another boat (he has a ketch of some kind, I'm clueless) saw me working and said I'd be doing this for a very long time with that particular tool.  He recommended a 7 inch disc sander that he had loaned to some other guys working on a different boat.  They weren't using it anymore, and they were french, and I kind of got the impression that for some weird reason he was a bigot against french-speaking people.  Maybe he got that idea by watching Fox News, or listening to Rush Limbaugh.  Who knows?

So, I got the sander but I needed sand paper.  7 inch discs.  24 grit was recommended, but 36 was acceptable in his opinion.  He said the other boat yard across the water had 24 grit.  Thus began my two hour trek in search of a tools upgrade.  Damn, this feels like Everquest all over again.

So, I hopped into the truck and drove over there. Closed.  I looked at my watch and noticed it was just after 12pm.  Im guessing they went to lunch.  So, I drove back to the boat yard where Sanctuary is dry docked and checked the store there.  Also closed.  Damn.  Well, I needed to make a trip to Lowes anyway so I could get a ladder that wouldn't try to kill me.

Lowes is about 10 miles away, or 15 minutes one direction.  It's across the street from a Super Wal-Mart, which is very convenient, it's basically the only two stores I need.

Lowes had a lot of ladders.  They were really proud of their products, it seemed, because they all cost a shitload more than I wanted to pay.  I ended up getting a 20 foot aluminum ladder for $139.  Crazy price, I know.

Lowes didn't have any 7 inch sandpaper, though, so I was kinda screwed on that front.  I ended up getting some 6 inch discs and hoped that would work (It didn't).  I did need something to stand on that was shorter than a typical ladder, and easily mobile, so I could reach all of the anti-fouling paint.  I selected the portable scaffolding, which last month was on sale for $89, but now was back to $99.

After getting back to the boat (it was almost 2pm now) I discovered the 6 inch discs wouldn't work.  Ah well, $4 down the drain.  I went to the ships store to get some 7 inch discs.  About five people in line in front of me so I knew this was going to take some time.

Something that I haven't mentioned, but needs some explanation.  It seems that most people who own boats live in another plane of reality.  Time passes much slower for them.  Or maybe they think they're gonna live forever, so why bother doing anything in a timely mannner?  It's better to chit-chat about whatever suits their fancy, which nine times out of ten is their boat (yeah, I guess can relate).  But they seem to think that the most mundane of trivia should be of extreme interest to everyone else.  I got trapped into a conversation with one of those people.

This guy has a trawler.  He's very proud of it, I could tell.  Said it was the only trawler in the US with a pilot house (yeah, right, they all have one).  Also said it was the only trawler with a sailing rig.

Um, hello?  That kind of boat isn't intended to sail.  About the only thing more retarded would be to put a sail on a Seadoo.  Yeah, you could probably rig something up, and maybe it would move somewhat if the wind blew hard enough, but WHY?

Well, he sucked another hour and a half of my life before I could finally get away.  He followed me back to Sanctuary, blabbering the whole time, and I tried to be nice and neighborly and all that.  When it became obvious he wasn't going to ever shut up, nor say anything meaningful, I began setting up all of my equipment.  Assembling the portable scaffolding.  Running an extension cord.  Donning my protective gear.  Plugging in equipment.  The whole damned time he is just jabbering away about ... hell, I don't know, I was trying to tune him out and pretend he wasn't annoying me, but I finally just said I HAD to get some work done.  Hell, it was almost 4pm by then.

So, between 4pm and 6, I got half of one side of the keel done.  That's it.  Been here 24 hours and I've accomplished something between jack and shit.

By C45Sanctuary on 1/11/2008 12:00 AM

I arrived around 6:45 this evening.  The yard gate was still open but it was dark outside.  The aluminum ladder that I had been secured to the side was missing.  I guess it didn't belong to the boat after all.  So, in the dark, I rigged a discarded fiberglass ladder.  It was better than any alternative but it is still a deathtrap.  I'm going to need to get a ladder from Lowes tomorrow.

This is my first visit to Sanctuary in 2008.  I was a bit worried since I had only expected to be away for a few days.  My goal on this visit is to remove the existing anti-fouling coating from the exterior, then deal with the few exposed metal areas.  Wire brush, Ospho (damn, I forgot to get some when I was in Dallas), and metal primer intended for wet environments, followed by some marine putty to smooth things out a bit.

I'd left an incandescent light turned on to help burn out some of the moisture that has been condensing, for some weird reason, on the port side shelf near the electrical panel.  The lamp was still on and the air within Sanctuary seemed dryer than in the past.

I've cleaned the moisture out at least twice already and it just keeps reappearing -- sometimes by the next morning.  There hadn't been any rain so the condensate (at least thats what I think it is) doesn't seem to be the direct result of rain.  Well, when I checked on that area tonight, it was full of water again.  It gets as full as it can and then drops down a hole that has speaker wire protruding from it.  The bilge seems to be dry so I have no idea where the water is going, much less comming from.

I'm just making wild guesses as to the source of the port-side condensate.  My best guess, at the moment, is that the moisture condenses to the port side because the setting sun hits the starboard side, keeping that side warmer.  So it condenses on the port side.  Not sure why the port side in the salon is the recipient of the condensate though, since the aft stateroom as well as the forward stateroom have similar shelf layouts.

I've checked the same area on the starboard side but it's dry.  There seems to have been -something- on the starboard shelf in the past because it was slightly tacky to the touch as well as a bit grimy.   But it was basically dry.

I ate a can of mini ravioli for dinner.  Sipped some of the free fountain drink I got when I filled up the truck with gas.  Discovered I had left a snickers bar for myself as a surprise.  Wow. I completely forgot all about that snickers bar.  I was happily surprised.

Then I called Jiffener and chatted for 15 minutes.  I was going to go to sleep until I thought, "Hey, don't forget to start the log.  You need to start doing that so you'll have a running history of what's going on."  Task complete.