Day 312, Year 10: Two More Coats of Varnish
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny and Windy
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA
Today was a two coat varnish day . . . and fiberglass cloth was applied to the bottom of the rudder. So the boat work is getting done, bit by bit.
About varnish: I use a 5 + 5 system with five coats of Epifanes Rapidclear (can be applied with only 4 hours between coats with no sanding needed) followed by a minimum of five coats of Epifanes Clear Varnish. At least this is the goal. But the current weather report indicates that this won’t happen this year. I will complete the five coats of Rapid Clear tomorrow and get one coat of Clear Varnish applied on Thursday. Then the forecast calls for possible rain on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and on into next week. So it is not the best forecast for varnishing. Hopefully the forecast changes.
About the bottom repairs: Yesterday epoxy was applied to the bottom of the keel and rudder. Today fiberglass cloth was applied to the bottom of the rudder. I’m not sure if this finishes off the applications or if more cloth and epoxy will be needed. But hopefully the repairs are completed by Thursday so that the bottom can be painted on Friday. If that happens, we should be back in the water on Monday. We shall see.
Today was out last day with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie until Friday a week from now when they return from visiting Grammy Goldstone in Maine. While they are gone we will continue the boat work, but Mark also has three of the days tied up with doctor visits. He has a treatment on Thursday of this week, a CT scan in Boston on Friday, and a follow-up appointment with his doctors at Mass General next Wednesday. The results of the scan will be shared and decisions will be made on whether we can travel this winter or whether we need to stay put here on the Cape. So next Wednesday’s appointment is a biggie. Today I felt bad that I had to spend part of the morning and part of the afternoon varnishing as it cut into my time with the boys. But Granddad pitched in and we managed to have a good day despite the work times. Ollie really wanted to go to the playground at Goodwill Park to practice hanging from the bars, so we decided to go swimming in next door Grews Pond instead of going to an ocean beach. In the past couple of years, we often spent days at Grews Pond, but this was our first visit this year. A little boy from Sam’s soccer team was there and all of the boys had a great time playing together.
I’m sure going to miss those little Goldpebbles, but when they return we have planned a sailing trip together. So we’ll make up for missed time then. In the meantime, work, work, work.
PS–Totally forgot to mention our stop at the cranberry bogs this morning. The cranberries won’t be ready until October, but this morning the work crews were cleaning out the canals that run between the fields. The boys could have spent the entire day just watching the machinery at work.
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| 150818 Day 312 Cape Cod, USA–Cranberry Bog Clean-up, Fiddler's Cove, Goodwill Park |
