Day 274, Year 6 Rub-a-Dub-Dub
Date: Monday, July 25, 2011
Weather: Totally Overcast, Temp 72 degrees F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Rub-a-Dub-Dub, one man in a tub-actually the one man was Mark and the tub was our dinghy. Mark spent his day there working his way around Windbird cleaning the hull from toe rail to waterline. The entire time we were in the Indian Ocean from Thailand to South Africa, we had only the water we made with our watermaker. There were no marinas to pull into to fill up our tanks, so we were very stingy with fresh water and cleaning the hull of the boat was one of those things that just didn’t happen. In doing that, the salt literally worked its way into the AwlGrip paint, so today when Mark used first one cleaner, then another, and then another, the salt build up just didn’t go away. He tried West Marine’s Salt-Off, AwlGrip’s AwlWash, Mr. Clean’s Magic Erasers, and Star Brite’s Hull Cleaner with no results. Mark had picked up a business card somewhere here of a man who does AwlGrip paint jobs, so he called him and asked what he would recommend using to clean the salt off. It was this man who explained that the salt had worked itself into the paint and that the only way to get rid of it was to use a rather harsh rubbing compound. The young man who we contracted to paint our boat in Thailand made sure we had bought this product before leaving Thailand and it got its first use today. It is a 3M product called Perfect-It II Extra Cut Rubbing Compound. The container says it is a “superior compound for all paints” and indeed it is. Of course, using any compound like this degrades the paint somewhat, but we seemed to have no other choice. And it is still not an easy task. Mark worked all day and did get the entire hull cleaned and about half of it polished with Awl-Care. I helped a bit, but basically he did the whole job alone. He is hoping to be able to finish polishing with Awl-Care tomorrow and then we know we just have to keep up with the cleaning, making sure we wash down the boat every time we go out. Easier said than done, but we will try.
Of course, this job might not get done tomorrow because the weather report is for thunder storms. I’m just hoping the storms are not as violent as the ones we had on Saturday. When Mark was at work yesterday, another woman who works there and has lived here all of her life, said that she and her husband were in at anchor in Martha’s Vineyard during the storm on Saturday and that it was one of the most violent that she remembers experiencing. A sailboat at anchor there was hit by the lightening. So it made me feel a bit better about my reaction to Saturday’s storm. It was truly scary and I don’t want a repeat tomorrow.
My day consisted of doing a little of this and little of that and not getting anything completed. I did a little meal planning for Justin and Jo’s upcoming visit, started a new journal, worked on photos (I’m back in the Caribbean now.), cooked and baked, wrote emails, and did a little cleaning. I think Heather and Jed’s company is leaving tomorrow, and if so, I’ll be doing the granny nanny bit tomorrow afternoon and then on Wednesday Justin, Jo, and Ziggy arrive. So the week just gets busier and more exciting as we move along. As a last note I’ll mention that Mark had a text chat on the phone with Ley of Crystal Blues back in Singapore. Neil was supposed to be wrapping up the work he has been doing in India so they could start cruising again, but they are afraid that the financial crisis in the US is going to cause another global financial crises and their Australian dollar will once again lose its value. So Neil is continuing to work a while longer. That conversation reminded me just how connected and interdependent people all over the world really are these days. We’re at a point where we don’t even want to imagine what things would be like without Social Security and Medicare. And if things don’t get better, I don’t think we have a chance of getting jobs, so we’re hoping for some sort of political miracle to resolve this stalemate sooner rather than later.
