Back on Task

Well, we finally made it back out to California after a long and eventful winter in Fl and Costa Rica. We decided to look into some medical issues and after perusing our options in the US as uninsured, we needed more options. Decided to go to Costa Rica and check out the medical tourism on Joans feet which were having a lot of pain in the big toe joints. It would cost about half as much to get them fixed in Costa Rica including the travel and lodging. While there, I had her orthopedic surgeon look at my shoulder and ended up getting my rotator cuff re-built. Also talked to a spinal surgeon about some nerve damage I was having in my leg. We stayed for about 6 weeks to get both surgeries and some recovery time and then back to Fl for some Physical Therapy for my shoulder. When the PT guy said I was mobilized to full range, we decided to go get my back fixed. In two weeks you will feel like new was the lead in, but the follow up was more like, much more needed doing than we had planned. It went well, just more pain and suffering than we envisioned. I was just glad to be up and about. Two weeks later we were back in FL packing for CA.

Arrived in CA the first week in June and found the boat miraculously pretty much as we had left it except for a few million spider nests and their leavings.  We spend a week getting a little organized and started back in prepping for some more paint work a week later. After two weeks, we have made some progress, but it is much slower than we had anticipated. I am babying my shoulder and back and it is amazing how debilitating laying around for a few months can be to your ability to stay in motion for any period of time. We sanded the primed amas and painted three sides, refining the technique each pass. By the time we are done we will know how to paint, but we will also know better than to do it again.

The painting process is long and involved, beginning with the removal of  all the bad paint from the last paint job. That is mostly what occupied our last time here. Once the old paint is removed or smoothed out, we have to go over everthing with fine sand paper to prepare for the primer coat. After it is all sanded, we wipe it all down with a solvent to remove any foreign chemicals like wax or soap.
Some times it takes a couple of passes to get a dust free surface.
We then coat the surface with a two part epoxy primer to ensure that we have something stuck to the boat to put the paint on. Since we roll this on, it is a fairly rough surface which must then be completely sanded and cleaned again prior to the actual application of the paint.
The paint is pretty much a repeat of all the other layers, tempered by the learning curve of how much to thin the paint to get even coverage, not run and not be so thin as to require too many coats. We will then fine sand the first coat, clean it all up again, and apply the final coat.
So far, we have a good coat on both sides of the amas, and have sanded 3 of the four surfaces to prepare for the final coat. We have decided to do the outer side of the amas last, as this is the most visible part of the boat and we hope to use our most developed skill set on that part.
At present we are preparing the starboard side of the main hull and akas for primer and hope to apply it tomorrow. Every days progress is dependent on the weather, how much activity there is in the yard around us, and how our bodies are holding up. Every couple of days we just schedule a down day on the bay to recuperate.
Looking at the progress so far, we will be sanding a couple of ama surfaces for a day each, prepping and painting them possibly in one day, and a lot more of the same for the main hull and akas.
The weather is pretty good here, cool nights and warm afternoons most days. Each day brings a little better conditioning to the paint crew, so maybe we'll be rocking and rolling before long. After three weeks, we are both feeling much better, but still a ways to go for me.
Sadly, it cannot all be moving forward at the desired pace. While preparing the starboard side for painting, I found a rotten spot in the surface of the deck and will have to replace a section of deck before we can finish the painting. It should be simple, but everything is before you get really involved in it. With any luck at all, I will just cut out the bad section, replace it with a similar piece of marine plywood, glass it, fair it with a little filler, and prime over it, etc.