Painting lockers

November 1st, I arrived back at the boat at Channel Islands Harbor direct from Grand Staircase/Escalante in Utah. Nevermind was waiting for me at the end of my month-long sojourn, and I plunged back in to work with renewed vigor. There's beginning to be more visible payoff with every step I complete, so that Nevermind is always looking better and better. This is gratifying.

Having previously patched and filled a few holes in the port settee lockers, the two deep bins were now ready for paint. I mixed up a strong TSP solution and scrubbed them well with a Scotch-Brite pad, and then rinsed...and rinsed....and rinsed, till the TSP was all gone. After drying, I scuffed the paint with 80 grit sandpaper, vacuumed out the dust, and laid in a coat of white Bilge-Kote. The next day I followed up with a second coat. The transformation was dramatic!

I also removed and serviced the house battery (installed 8/05) today - electrolyte was a little low in 2 or 3 cells.

I finished by taking many pictures of the boom before removing it - it's going home for a cleaning, straightening (it has a minor bend after an incident with a preventer), and painting. How about that arrangement at the end of the boom - nice, huh? When I got the boat there was no end cap at all and the topping lift didn't work at all. This was a quick & dirty rig to get us down from San Francisco.

One more thing - the (presumably polyester Bondo) fairing filler on the seahood is failing. It's not adhering to the glass. When the filler comes off, the paintdoes too, leaving bare glass. That will have to be stripped, re-faired, and repainted. The sea hood is also not bolted down, so I'm going to sink some 1/4-20 SS bolts through the flange to fix it more securely to the cabin top. Right now only bedding compound holds it on the boat.