Scrambling

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL 
34 42.54 N 081 05.58


It's official.  We are procrastinators.   With 4 months here in Marathon, one would think that all possible boat projects and to-do lists would be exhausted.   Right?  Not so.  We've spent too much time having fun and too little time at hard work.   What's wrong with that?   Not much.  However, the projects need to get done sometime.  


Jenny is flying down to spend a week with us.  It will be her chance to escape and recover from the very long very cold winter they had in Vermont.   Of course, we'll be delighted to see here.   Meanwhile, her impending visit created a deadline to get some of the most important projects done.


My biggest project was to paint the top decks white.  I'm ashamed to say, that has been my top priority project for 20 months and I'm just now getting around to it.   We've painted those decks before, and the last attempt was a cosmetic disaster.  It was an ugly brown, that held and showed dirt, and could not be cleaned even with hard scrubbing.   My first idea was to cover it with a dark color to hide dirt.  I got 1/4 through that project when I realized that no cruising boats have dark colored top decks.  The reason is that they would get terribly hot in the sun and bake inhabitants inside.   


So I abandoned the dark blue, and started again with pure white.  While we're living on the boat we can only paint half at a time.  Move all the loose stuff to the starboard side, and walk on that side to get on/'off the boat while the port side is painted.  I needed three coats of white to finish the port.  Next, reverse everything and paint the starboard side.  Today I finished the first coat on the starboard side.  FINALLY! I'll do the 2nd coat tomorrow, and alas the third coat when Jenny is here.


I also have an unfinished interior varnish project.  I started last week to re-varnish the top of the refrigerator.  The result was terrible -- it looked much better before than after.  I'll have to sand it down to bare wood and start from scratch.   My varnishing skills were never good.  Exterior I get away with it but the interior finishes make it too visible.   That project will probably not get done until Jenny leaves.