Solo Ventures

 Glassing the rudders Glassman painting the hatches continues.  Today,  between showers, I sanded both rudders which had their faces and edges glassed. I then primed both.   It struck me that I've lost time working due to wet weather. The BOM statistics reveal that we've had over  300mm of rain so far this month over 18 days of rain.  On the days that it's not raining,  I'm either catching up with paid work out waiting for the grounds to dry.  It had been wet like this for months,  la nina year.      3 April. Today the rudders were sanded and another smear of epoxy applied to all small imperfections.   Also,  the cheek plates,  or tiller stops,  were added in another small step forwards.  Weather is not raining,  but water lays everywhere and further flooding rain is expected  next Wednesday. To be caught at sea last week would have been calamitous.  Reading "The Old Man and the Sea". A tale of four older men mounting a self made raft constructed from plastic

 All portside hatches & the outboard pod have a second coat of grey paint.  The rudders have been glassed & finished coated in epoxy below the waterline.  They are ready for check plate during,  drilling for rope pintles & paint.  Reading "Lively Lady" by Alec Rose. A 1967 circumnavigating solo& unsupported with one planned stop,  the year following Sir Francis Chichester in Gypsy Moth.

 " I've been trying to find way to get art out of the gallery".            Dr  Lexi Eikelboom "Soul                       Search ,  ABC Radio National 2022. Immediately,  as I heard these words uttered on Radio National today I had a brain fart. This is what I see as needed in sail cruising.  For sailors,  real sailors,  to get out of the marina!  Choose to anchor off, spend the night underway,  move,  careen, live aboard.  Interesting that the larger the yacht,  the less likely you are to be able to live independently afloat and to service your own needs.  

 Ooh, I love it when everything comes put right when you're fibreglassing.  Today I 'glassed the lower sides of the rudders and they came up quite nicely.  Bliss. 

 Today,  at work i felt really low emotionally.  I'd been having a bit of a tough time with work equipment of late and today it just moved steadily in the same direction.  As I persevered with doing the work  under duress,  I just kept rolling numbers of dollars around in my head and thinking when is this going to stop? I'm flogging myself and ageing m machines, just to keep my head above water and pay bills. Beyond all this garbage are layers of shit,  like when if ever is my son (who is away working for his maternal grandmother), going to pull his weight at work,  with me or doing something else. And I'm trying to build a cruising nest egg and break out.  Then these two guys roll up doing the same job with a really expensive truck and all the fucking gear and just eat this job.  I'm then wondering further about whether I need to go into debt and get new gear?  I mean,  the issues of working alone under heavy workload,  using failing equipment and wondering whether I e

 Lugged the genny down to the hull & scraped, sanded & primed patches. All appeared quite sound with the only area of concern were the inner cabin gunnel & gunnel timber aft. Both these areas had been fibreglass post construction.   I read afterwards,  that fill should be applied before priming.  

 This setting pout foul weather must be trying for man& beast,  for the last six morning's or so a dastardly fox had been visiting the hens.  You could set your watch by "him", he's very regular.  If you offered him wages,  he would surely sleep in& claim sick leave.  But this fellow is a sole trader, hard working and reliable.  But,  I don't worry too much, art the sound of a screech I loose the dogs & they will pursue the little fellow a good while.  They yap excitedly about the usual places before Zipper gets the scent & they invariably charge off  eastwards and halt barking loudly.  Presumably this is where foxy goes to ground.   I give them all a treat on their return & there's much back patting as they crunch their crackers.  The kittens join the fray with ac small few biscuits & I'll be a coffee & take a biscuit to my berth and read Tilman & reflect on the days progress on Ka'nu.

  Waiting on fibreglass cloth to complete rudders, I am usingv the time to sand & paint the portside hatches. There are three all together, two  mains &  forward hatch.  Each has a seal under the lip.  The Previous Owner seems to have been in the habit of leaving the main hatch open to catch water and there was a spot of rot under the seal.   This morning the hatches have been stripped,  sanded & filled.  The next step is to fibreglass the top faces. Non skid will be replaced and the lot painted,  before new seal rubbers are fitted.   Once again the Wharram design amazes.  The two party main hatch is hinged in an ingenious way to allow the rear half to be flipped over the front & still provide a waterproof seal.  Again the hinge is simple and cheap enough for the home builder to make.  12 MARCH 2022: Portside hatches have been sanded, filled & primed ready for finish painting & adding new seals.

 A minor purchase was made today,  of 1.5l kit of Bote Cote epoxy resin.The drive out was interesting with several roads closed due to flooding.  Anyway,  it cost $84, and apart from a Reason Orbital Sander and some sandpaper discs,  has been my only purchase for the refit so far.   Hopefully the torrential reasons and horrendous humidity will have a rest and the I can proved with sealing up the blades and patching the stbd. tiller.       -      x      -      x      -      x     - Tonight I discovered a new to me Tiki 21 build vlog by Rex Payne and his life partner from Spring Hill,  Florida.  Nice build too. 

  The first new rudder & a black cat for luck. While disassembling the starboard steering assembly I confirmed there was a considerable amount of rot at  the head of the rudder. It also looked as though it had been splinted following a break or severe fracture about two thirds up the rudder.  It had to go! Using the old blade as a template I made a copy, but from 19mm ply. The original rudder was only 12mm, which I suspect is skinnier than the plans indicate.   I was lucky to discover how the tiller fits onto the head of the rudder.  As the Previous Owner had fobreglassed  the tiller and rudder they had to be cut apart.  With the rot it eventually crumbled apart revealing an ingenious system,  the rear of the tiller slot is a curved to fit a half circle cut out in the rudder. The tiller is slotted in curved surfaces first,  before hinging down and locking it all into place. This is classic Wharram design,  simple brilliance. All done without stainless steel fittings! It gave me gre