After spending what feels like an eternity preparing the bottom, repairing chips and damaged areas, sanding, cleaning and generally making a mess of myself and everything around me, I’ve finally started putting Pettit Odyssey antifouling on La Sirena.
I’ve managed to get about three-quarters of the first coat done and have used just short of one can so far. I’m working my way around the rudder, through-hulls and underwater fittings, as well as going back over the areas I’ve previously repaired. It’s not particularly glamorous work. Most of the time I’m lying underneath the boat, covered in paint, trying to reach another awkward spot while looking up at the bottom of a boat that’s been taking up most of my life lately.
But seeing that first coat going on is satisfying.
For weeks, the bottom has been about preparation — now it finally looks like something is actually happening.
And, naturally, just as I get started, the weather decides to become the boss.
We’re expecting 35+ mph winds tomorrow, with plenty of rain arriving with it and continuing over the next few days. That’s the reality of working on a boat in a Pacific Northwest boatyard. You can have a perfect week of weather and then suddenly find yourself staring at a forecast that says, you’ve got a very small window left.
And that window matters.
September is here, and the weather is changing. The warm, dry August we’ve had is disappearing, and the next few weeks are going to become progressively wetter and windier. I need to get the remaining bottom and topside work finished while I still have a reasonable opportunity to do it properly.
There is a big difference between wanting to finish a job and needing to finish it before the weather makes the job ten times harder.
The boatyard has become a strange sort of second home over the last few months. There are tools everywhere, bits of boat scattered around, supplies arriving almost every day and an ever-changing list of things that need fixing, replacing, cleaning, painting or simply figuring out.
I’ve made more trips to the marine supply store than I care to admit.
Every time I think I’m getting close to having everything I need, I find one more bulb, fitting, piece of hardware, tube of sealant or obscure little part that apparently cannot possibly be missing from a cruising boat.
But that’s changing now.
The list is getting shorter.
The piles of tools and materials are slowly getting smaller.
And La Sirena is beginning to look like a boat that’s actually being finished, rather than a boat that’s permanently undergoing a refit.
The plan is to get back on the bottom Saturday and finish the first coat.
I’ve also got another can of Semco teak sealer arriving Thursday. As soon as I get a few dry days, I’ll get that onto the teak deck. I’m not trying to make the teak perfect this year. Next year I’ll give it the proper sanding and refinishing it deserves. Right now, the priority is getting it protected and ready for the coming weather.
There are still plenty of jobs left, but I’m starting to see the end of this particular phase.
Soon the question won’t be what else needs fixing?
It will be when can I launch?
That’s a pretty good feeling.
For now, though, I’m watching the forecast, waiting for Saturday and trying to squeeze as much work as possible into every dry hour I can get.
The bottom is getting paint.
The teak is getting sealed.
The boatyard is about to get wetter.
And the clock is ticking.
But it’s coming along.
Slowly, sometimes painfully, occasionally expensively — but definitely coming along.
And after all the work that’s gone into La Sirena, I’m really looking forward to the day when I can stop working underneath her and start working on the boat from the water. The yard schedule for relaunching has yet to be confirmed, it’s a busy place and getting a slot is weather and yard work dependent. We are looking at as soon as the end of September, if possible. I have also realized why there are a lot of folks with blue hair in Bellingham.
