Okay maybe not the sky, but something definitely did not look right as we drove up to Akupara yesterday.
I knew this was coming but I just did not know when exactly it was going to happen.
We had a bit of snow last week one morning and obviously it was enough to gather in the low spots on the shrink wrap and as the temperature climbed a bit, it created a depression which continued to collect water when it rained this week. Thankfully the cover collapsed over the main companionway where it rested a little on deck, a little on the drawers that are queued for sanding and on the helm. I had to poke a small hole in the tarp and let it drain into the cockpit. I enlarged the hole to about 1/4 inch in size and after an hour or so, enough water was gone that I could stand up underneath the cover, and push the remainder outwards with my back. There was a layer of about an inch of ice on top of the water that was sent crashing overboard. Today I will have to go back and re-enforce the frame with some vertical 2×4’s and I will attempt to shrink the shrink-wrap a bit with a heat gun to tighten up the loose areas.
I think this is an omen. It is foreshadowing at least. We need to get back to hustling and we need to get the decks completely prepped for paint as I doubt if we would ever see another year out of the shrink wrap and I do not want to pay to have it done again.
Once the crisis was over and we fixed the falling sky issue, we began to work on the layout of the galley and pantry. Remember a while back I had started into the pantry and then I stopped. My reason for stopping was that I did not want to go and make a bunch of dividers and shelves only to find out that none of our containers would fit, so we brought all of the new containers down to Akupara and played organization for a while trying to find the best layout for all of the storage.
We have been thinking about the galley as well. The shelf behind the stove needs to come out yet, but for the same reason as not finishing the pantry, I wanted to be able to build everything to fit. We have always felt that the height of the shelf was a bit odd and after trying to fit containers etc in, it only reinforced our belief.
I think we need to slow down a bit on the galley and come to a final decision as to whether or not we will build in a microwave, dishwasher, coffee maker and where the wine fridge will go. Joke 😉 But in all honesty I think we need to spend a bit more time designing this. One of the major beefs about the layout currently is that anything you put on the shelf behind the stove is almost useless if the stove is on as you need to reach across directly on top of the stove.
Over the holidays I glued (contact cement) arborite to the panel for the area behind where the electrical panel was, which I have planned as the new spot for the watermaker, and to the new drop down electrical panel and electronics area at the nav station. We brought these pieces with us and I installed them temporarily to ensure they fit. One did and of course one did not so I will need to do some trimming, but overall we are pleased with the black look.
As you can see in the picture I still need to glue arborite to the tops of the chart locker, tool storage area.
I am still not sure what the official name for this spot is, but I am inclined to just start calling it the hallway.
So all in all we had a productive day, on top of all this, the Admiral managed to get a few more pieces sanded and ready to be stained.
Our basement is slowly emptying out to the point that I was able to create a temporary workbench out of some old plywood I had on top of sawhorses and really start organizing some of the remaining straggling pieces.
I also took a closer look at the booms yesterday and discovered that both the main and the mizzen are rigged with 2 reef points set up for 1 line reefing for each point. This is a nice feature that I do not recall seeing before. On our previous ketch’s, neither had a reefable mizzen.
We are approaching another milestone here soon. We are nearing the completion of the interior wood sanding. I say we, but in reality it has been the admiral performing all the sanding and I do the installation and staining. There are 2 more doors in our basement, 3 drawers, and a bunch of trim pieces. On Akupara there are about 5 drawers, 1 door, and a bunch of trim pieces as well, but the majority of all of the wood sanding is almost done. That was a gigantic job! When it is complete, we will need to move on to sanding of the liner in preparation for new paint and of course the multiple sandings of the deck.
It feels good to be back at it again!!