Cabin Fever!

We live in what people consider the start of the South. Well I am here to tell you that it is not far enough south for this sailor! It has been rainy and cold for several weeks now, and as I write this I can hear the falling icy rain "wintry mix" tinkling against our windows. This winter season has been unseasonably cold; not freezing, but unpleasantly cold. Just two years ago at this time we were sailing our Sal home in 50-60 degree weather with sunny skies. 2013 has brought us one Nor'Easter after another, and quite frankly it is starting to grate on my nerves.

 

We have quite a few small cruising trips on the Chesapeake planned but as we have said earlier there are things like painting and fiberglass work that has to get done first....Spring please start already! A glimmer of hope is on the horizon though: I looked at the extended weather forecast this afternoon and it is looking positive. All we can do is wait and plan at this point.

 

Cozy V-berth, but all-original and like many boats of this vintage....dark.

 

Goal number one will be to finish the v-berth. October 2011 (has it been that long??!) I took the v-berth apart to clean the water tank that was built into the hull. Unfortunately to access this tank the v-berth had to come apart...and so apart it came. Once we had access to the tank were we ever glad we had never tried to drink from it! To say it was gross would be an understatement. It was full of dirt and black mold. I began by making a new lid as the original was aluminum and was heavily corroded.  40+ years of water had really taken its toll. I made a new lid of plywood covered with fiberglass and West Systems Epoxy.

You can see the original lid still in place but getting closer to accessing it

This was the foul mess found in the tank....

 Our heavily corroded lid

Tank all cleaned waiting for FDA approved epoxy coating

Here's the new lid, it has 2 layers of glass and 4 coats of epoxy on the underside. Bottom will have an additional coating of FDA approved epoxy.

 

Since these pictures were taken, I have done a bit more additional work. I have sanded down all the bulkheads and overhead. All those sanded surfaces still need final prep work, primer, then paint. Still deciding on whether to save money and use a quality home enamel???? Once we get some good weather and the temperature gets above 60 I will coat the tank and start reassembling the v-berth. One of the things we decided is we did not want a lot of wood in the berth. We want it to be nice and bright so we are going to paint it all and just have wood accent pieces.

As you can see we have our work cut out for us. We will keep you posted!

 

WARMER WEATHER PLEASE HURRY!