One step forward...3 or 4 back

Deb’s description of our day off the pier can’t be topped, and it was a much needed reminder of why we bought a boat in the first place. But …

… several days of relentless rain made it impossible to ignore the amount of water finding a way into our living area. The main hatch in the salon leaks so badly that Deb made a waterproof cover that just managed to slow the flow to something livable. Annoying, but it looks to be a pretty mundane repair … pull the glass, re-bed with massive amounts of sealer, spend a day cleaning up sealer spugned out everywhere. Like I said, annoying.

The one that had me most curious was the leak that appeared to be coming directly out of the wood up high in the galley. The port nearby was the obvious source, but water squirting out of the wood when I pushed on it with my finger? Can’t be a good thing.

The rain let up so I pulled the port to find wood mush under the port and radiating aft. That mush used to be part of a big trim piece glued to the inside of the cabin side. Changing the whole thing is not really an option so a scarf repair is in my near-term future. I haven’t done one of those in a long time and have never done one on plywood veneer this thin (3/8s is what it measures). There is a spot that looks just as bad on the other side of the cabin, if I screw this one up badly I’ll just call it “practice”. In the meantime the inside of our boat is partly disassembled yet again.

So after a brief reminder of why we are dong this and a short respite from daily labors, it is back to hammering at the to-do list. Exterior teak is 3 coats away from being finished. One port is removed with a chunk of once-rotten wood now missing while another port waits its turn to go under the putty knife. Overhead two hatches sit in desperate need of sealer, dripping their discontent all over our living and bed rooms.

And winter is getting close …