Day 155, Year 4 We Won!
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009
Weather: Threat of Rain All Day
Location: Boat Lagoon Marina, Phuket Island
The mast was painted for the second time today and even though there was early in the day thundering and the skies were threatening all day, it only sprinkled rain once at mid-day. So we are happy thinking we won the battle this day. Hurrah!
I think I was so distracted yesterday by the news of the murder of a fellow cruiser that I forgot to write in the log all of the things that happened on Windbird yesterday. We had four different crews working on the boat. Muzza was there to do the measurements for the bimini, Nop’s crew was there to raise the dinghy motor hoist, Mike’s crew from Pro Carpentering was there to figure out how to remake the dinghy motor mount to fit in its new position, and, of course, Oh’s crew was there sanding the mast and getting it ready to paint once again. So yesterday was a very productive day, even if most of the work was fixing things that should have been right the first time. But “right the first time” is in the perfect world in which we do not live.
Today was much calmer on Windbird than yesterday with its flurry of activity. I continued my work on the bronze ports and am starting to actually make some progress. I have used my little Dremel attachments very judiciously and I think I will be able to get all four ports, inside and out, ready to be lacquered tomorrow. Mark got the new wire line from the rudder to the keel attached which will help protect the prop from rogue logs and fishing traps. He installed a new platform in the engine room for our starting battery and did many other little odds and ends. Luck got the newly painted platform for our life raft installed on the cabin top, but very unfortunately after everything was installed we found that one of the bolts attaching the life raft frame to the platform is too long and scrapes on our companionway hatch. We will try to remove that bolt in the morning and see if that solves the problem. If not, the whole thing will have to be removed and then reinstalled. These are the problems of putting a boat back together.
If everything looks good in the morning, we will then be able to start the mast reassembly on Saturday afternoon. That is March 28. Our Visa runs out on April 3, so the race is on.
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| 090326 Day 155 Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Thailand–Mast Painting and Reassembly |
