2017 Life Logs, Day 184: Boat Work
Date: Monday, July 03, 2017
Weather: Sunny; High 88, Low 62 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was all about boat work. As I explained in an earlier log, I am working with Bruce and Jane Woodin to get their 17’ sailboat, Pooh, ready for launch. In return for the work, Heather, Jed, and I will get to use Pooh a few times this summer. The timing of the work has precluded Heather and Jed from helping since Jed is in Japan and either Heather or I need to be with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. And since the boys will be with me most days this summer, I suggested that I do the work today and Heather spend time with the boys since she had the day off work. The boat job was stripping varnish from the teak trim on the boat. My specialty has always been varnishing the teak and Mark always stripped the varnish and did the sanding. But I have watched the process many times and today I did the stripping with a heat gun and Bruce followed with the sander. We started at 11 am and ended at 5 pm with an hour break for lunch. So I really only worked for 5 hours, but I am totally exhausted. I almost got the job completely done, but I gave out before stripping one last piece. Bruce will try to get that done, and on Wednesday after Camp Oma, I will work with Bruce to wipe down the teak and tape it off so the varnishing process can begin on Thursday. I’m going to try to varnish before and after Camp Oma on Thursday and Friday, weather permitting. There is a chance of rain on Friday, so the afternoon varnishing might have to be delayed until Saturday. The goal is to try and launch on Sunday. I’m not sure we can make that deadline, but we are going to keep trying. But tomorrow we are taking the day off to celebrate the 4th with family. Heather and boys are coming here midday and then walking to the beach for the afternoon. For dinner we are having a lobster and clam fest. Jed is allergic to lobster, so we are taking advantage of his absence to do this. Then we will walk down to Falmouth Heights Beach to watch the 4th of July fireworks. Heather has to be at work at 8 am the next morning, so she and the boys are spending tomorrow night here. That way she will closer to work the next morning and the boys and I will head down to the beach for the first swim lessons of the summer. And with that, I’ll close and get my tired self to bed.
