Our Summer Cruise 2018

 

Sunday, August 5

Off to Ellsworth today; Judy to go swimming at the YMCA and me to see about getting a new phone at the AT&T store. Fortunately, the phone was insured but there was still a good sized deductible to pay. They promised delivery by the end of the day on Tuesday to Atlantic Boat which is excellent service. I feel lost without the phone; not so much for the toughen part of it but all of the other functions like the camera, e-mail, weather, etc. I will survive!

By the time we got back, it was late afternoon so we had a relaxing day on our apartment's deck under the awning we had rigged up as it is exposed to sun for much of the day.

Monday, August 6

Wayne was busy at work this morning on the miserable job of grinding back the fiberglass to solid material and then beveling the edges so they taper from the opening out; typically this was a bevel about 5" wide. the temperature in the building was in the mid 80s and he had to work in a full suit, hood and full face respirator. Even with a dust extractor it is a very unpleasant job. I was remiss in not getting photographs but everything was tented up.

With the bevels complete, Wayne added spray-in foam to create a rough backing for the fiberglass mat and cloth to be applied later and after a couple of hours was back to rough cut it to the approximate profile. The next step was to fair the foam using a fiber reinforced polyester resin (a Bondo type filler).

Tuesday, August 7

With the filler hardened overnight, the next step was to sand it fair and cut the multiple layers of glass to size. Nordic Tug provided Wayne with their fiberglass schedule, i.e., what type of glass mat and cloth they used and the number of layers, so he could match it. The glassing process involved laying each piece of resin soaked cloth in place and adding another slightly larger layer on top then rolling with pressure to eliminate excess resin and any air pockets. A total of eight layers would be applied with layers overlapping under the keel on the flat area giving a very thick layer there to match the original.

In the meantime, I was working on the electronics on STB trying to trouble shoot some errors I had been getting. In the process, I ended up rewiring my NMEA 2000 backbone and adding a powertap based on advice from Furuno.

Other notable news - my new phone arrived but now needs to be restored from my last backup and an updated operating system installed - tough with minimal coverage here.

Wednesday, August 8

After some sanding, Wayne added the final layers of glass during the day in two separate sessions and left them to cure overnight. Good news - the phone is up and running minus a couple of days of photographs that had not been backed up.

Thursday, August 9

Back in to the fog cycle again after some good weather; dense early morning fog with clearing and then the fog rolling back in in the late afternoon - not too bad being on land. Dean is on a mooring still with Charlotte in Chicago tending to her father and some nights has trouble seeing his boat! Sometime the weather will clear so that Dean and I can make the run up to the Blue Hill yacht club (KYC) to fill Carrie Rose with fresh water and pump out his holding tank. We think we have convinced him to add a pump so he can pump the tank overboard when three or more miles out.

Today Wayne did more sanding and then the final layer of mat. It is now looking quite good with contours closely matching the original hull shape.

Tonight we had some very strange cloud patterns with rolls and wispy clouds like tentacles reaching down.

Eventually, the clouds filled in and, within half an hour, the rain came putting an end to the local Republican Party gathering below our apartment.

Friday, August 10

Boat work continues with Wayne grinding away to get ready for the gel coat filler application - this is a another very messy job, with a full suit and respirator. By the end of the day, he had the first layer of gel coat filler applied ready for sanding on Monday.

Gel Coat Thickened With Cabosil Applied in a Thin Layer to Fair Glasswork

Dean and I took advantage of the good weather today to take Carrie Rose to Blue Hill. It's about 12 nm each way - down to the end of Herrick Bay and past Flye Island Light and a number of small rocks to follow the shoreline north to Blue Hill. The attractive Island recently sold to a group of doctors from Brigham Young Hospital but needs some extensive work before the structures become a bit more than "camping out." They are making good progress with renovations and have some good plans to make it self supporting with its own power, water, and treatment equipment.

 

it was a perfect day to be out on the water with just a small chop and we were soon in Blue Hill where the KYC provides excellent service - free water and pump outs. On the return, we caught the maximum tidal current in our favor and running at anywhere up to 11.5 knots versus 7.5 on the way up!

 

Saturday, August 11

Good night with a clear sky and an amazing star display overhead. Sunny, mid 70s forecast.

Finished up some re-wiring of my electronics and now ready to calibrate the re-situated compass when we get back in the water which looks like Wednesday now. Judy off to Ellsworth YMCA to swim a few laps while I sit at the Blue Hill Library in a comfortable armchair working on the blog to get it up to date. No other big plans for the day although I saw a poster in the coffee shop for a concert in Surrey just down the road that looked interesting.

After talking, we agreed to try out the concert at the Surrey Barn and headed there for a concert by Everything Turned to Color, an indy folk/jazz trio based in New York.

The Barn is just that a 120 year-old barn that has been converted into a small concert venue. It is run by Alan Wittenberg, who apart from being a musician, is a music therapist. As you can see it is a small, intimate space and the concerts feature everything from blues to chamber music with some noted performers.

 

 

A sampling of what we heard tonight: