Good morning everyone. The weeks have been flying since we stopped sailing. Crunch time is here before the docks are taken out and we are forced to stop working aboard the schooner. Deckhand Rob has been diligently picking away at numerous small projects all of which add up to a tremendous jump start on the fit-out process for next spring. The weather has been quite warm, relative to the state of Maine. I know you folks from south of the Mason Dixon line might shudder to think we consider anything over 40 degrees to be varnish weather. We look at the directions on the varnish can as just guidelines.
All of the cabin houses have been sanded and numerous repairs to the aging fiberglass are made. Whoever said fiberglass is maintenance-free must have been kidding. Yesterday we laid down a second coat of oil on the deck to seal things up for the winter and to guard against the inevitable small drips of paint that come with new hands painting each spring. As you can see, Rob gets the finesse work while I just get nuns knees after 4 hours.
I finally got a chance to level out the port midships companionway threshold, a project I have been waiting to get to for years. Ever since the mid 70s when the companionways were shifted from their outboard position to the current configuration the port side has been 2” higher than the starboard side (or any other threshold on the schooner for that matter). While it may seem a small detail that extra 2” makes a difference when climbing up that last step. Ronny Hawkins, whose dad Buds Hawkins designed and captained the schooner for 20 years before handing the business over to his sons, was aboard visiting last week and admitted he had never noticed the discrepancy. All these little details add up in the long run. I have a long list of detail work that I will get to eventually. One of the great things about windjammers is that the list of details can go on forever. We call that job security. No fear of down sizing in this business.
Have a great day. Be well. Do good.
All of the cabin houses have been sanded and numerous repairs to the aging fiberglass are made. Whoever said fiberglass is maintenance-free must have been kidding. Yesterday we laid down a second coat of oil on the deck to seal things up for the winter and to guard against the inevitable small drips of paint that come with new hands painting each spring. As you can see, Rob gets the finesse work while I just get nuns knees after 4 hours.
I finally got a chance to level out the port midships companionway threshold, a project I have been waiting to get to for years. Ever since the mid 70s when the companionways were shifted from their outboard position to the current configuration the port side has been 2” higher than the starboard side (or any other threshold on the schooner for that matter). While it may seem a small detail that extra 2” makes a difference when climbing up that last step. Ronny Hawkins, whose dad Buds Hawkins designed and captained the schooner for 20 years before handing the business over to his sons, was aboard visiting last week and admitted he had never noticed the discrepancy. All these little details add up in the long run. I have a long list of detail work that I will get to eventually. One of the great things about windjammers is that the list of details can go on forever. We call that job security. No fear of down sizing in this business.
Have a great day. Be well. Do good.
Comments
Details, details. Fall has finally arrived here in Alabama, well below the Mason Dixon line. The trees are beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow and gold. And the air conditioners have been turned off.
Details, details. A few days ago, just before the time changed, I saw a flock of geese flying in their miraculous Vee under a canopy of cirrocumulus clouds lit from below in majestic shades of vermilion from the rising sun. The formation of geese was flying north-northwest.
Details, details. So, the threshold on the port companionway was two inches higher than the others. Was that why you always booked Al and me there? Because we're young, sprightly, able bodied men? Notice I didn't write that we were rated as able bodied in fact I think we are rated as waisters.