Yea, back at the boat

Kerm here

I had a nice drive down here to Stuart about a week ago.  Chris stayed back in the cities to take care of some financials and to nurse her leg that was badly bruised getting on Linda's sail boat.  On the way down I stopped in Cleveland to take care of some paperwork with son Dan and see his new apartment.  I also stopped in Atlanta to see cousin John and Cheryl. We did some sailing on Lake Lanier on our old J 24 sailboat that John bought from us about 20 years ago.  John and Cheryl are fantastic hosts and 'my' room has the best bed in the world.  Jeez, I sleep later there than anywhere. 

After 3 months away the Belle is a bit shabby.  The wood trim has discolored a bit and everything needs a good wash and wax.  The good news is that the bilge has no smells and there was just a bit of old boat smell in the cabin.  This, I believe is from the salt air slime that builds up on interior panels over a period of time.  Bring out the vinegar water and all will be good for awhile.  For now I'm going to leave the washing and concentrate on fixing and replacing projects.

Its been a good week for boat work.  I built a new hatch for the flybridge when I was in the cities and it fit perfect.  The old one was a sliding hatch that weighed a zillion pounds that slid on wood rails.  Especially when it was humid the thing was a bugger to move.  The new one is light weight and hinges up with the help of a gas shock like you would see for the tailgate on a SUV.  Currently there is a clear plastic top on the hatch but I'm going to put on some plastic tinting film that will probably reduce the appearance of scratches.  This project started the winter before last when I built and installed a new ring around the hatch opening so I'm glad this project is just about done.

Next.  I'm sure that anyone that has a home sees something that is broken or worn that never seems to get fixed and not a day or week goes by that you look at it and figure that you will get to it some day.  On the Belle there was one of these that drove me nuts but in this case I didn't think I had the skills to fix it and could not bare the ridiculous over the top cost of a pro doing it.  In this case the back door had a piece of trim that was broken off and each time I sat on the back deck that broken piece became a focal point.  At one point a couple of years ago I did have a pro look at it and he said that to do the project right the door would have to be disassembled and have a contoured blade made for a router to make up a new piece.  Another option would be to have a skilled wood carver made a piece. $$$ either way.  So I looked at it for another couple of years and then said screw it, I'll do it myself.
I cut out the bad section and glued in piece of teak that had the same outside dimensions and without having the proper carving tools I just started sanding away with sandpaper wrapped around different size round things found in my tool box.  In the end the project turned out so well that I'm now in the process of refinishing the whole outside of the door.  I'm posting a picture but there isn't much to see as the area looks just like the rest of the door.  Sometimes you get lucky...

Everyone is asking what our plans are for the winter.  We have no plans and we're sticking to it.  Just so long that it doesn't include gloves, long pants and windshield washer fluid.

                                    It's the contoured piece just this side of the keyhole