I know it has been almost two months since my last update, but a lot of things have been accomplished in the meantime! Let’s see if I can get everything all straight:
New mooring tackle. Back at the beginning of March at dead low tide, I put on a wetsuit and waded out into the cold Niantic River, dragging my plastic SportYak behind me. Fortunately, the water level was only just above my knees, and I didn’t feel cold at all. One at a time, I wrenched the three anchors and the mooring buoy out of the water, deposited them in the SportYak, and then I dragged everything to shore where I removed the old chain and shackles and put new ones on. I then waded back into the water and set all three anchors as close to 120 degrees apart as I could, pulling them tight and yanking on the chain to set them. That job is done for another three years, thankfully.
New lower shroud. Thanks to Rudy Nickerson at D&R Marine, I now have a brand-new lower starboard shroud to replace the old one that was fraying.
Port jib sheet trimmed. This took about two minutes with the help of an electric line cutter.
Cabin paint completed. I put on a new coat of cabin paint which was almost the exact color I had painted over thirteen years ago. It took several hours, but what a difference!
Buffed and reinstalled chainplates. I spent some time cleaning up the chainplates before rebedding them with 5200. This should stop any leaking.
Cleaned the mildew from the vinyl trim. The white Taco vinyl trim around the companionway and on the front of the two shelves were rather unsightly. Star Bright’s Professional Grade Mold & Mildew Stain Remover took care of that problem with a few applications.
All cabin teak fixtures oiled. While I enjoy the look of weathered teak, I like the looks of oiled teak better, so I removed the binoculars holder, VHF holder, magazine rack, and soap rack from the two wooden bulkhead panels inside the cabin to put on two applications of Watco Teak Oil. Now, they look fantastic!
New writing utensils holder. While I was at it, I took some old teak I had and cut out a small block, drilling holes for a pen, pencil, dry-erase marker (for marking on my charts), and a Sharpie marker. I gave it the same Watco Teak Oil treatment and screwed it to the side of my magazine rack. Now my writing utensils won’t be rolling around on one of the shelves!
New paint on weather instruments. I have a small Weems and Plath barometer and comfort-meter that was originally part of a three-instrument cluster mounted on mahogany along with a matching clock. Unfortunately, the clock died, but I didn’t really care for it anyway - its ticking would drive me crazy when trying to sleep! So I removed the barometer and comfort-meter and mounted them individually on the cabin bulkhead panels. Over time, they corroded somewhat, so I sprayed on a gold-metallic Rustoleum coat of paint. They look brand new.
First coat of varnish. I ended up removing the cabin bulkhead panels anticipating replacing them since they were pock-marked with so many holes from moving pieces of mounted equipment around. However, I decided to keep them, so I sanded them and gave them a fresh coat of varnish along with the tiller, hatchboards, hatchslides, and coaming tops.
So, what’s left? I need to put a second coat of varnish on everything, sand the white bootstripe and give it two coats of paint, put a new water pump in the outboard motor, re-install the wooden bulkheads, and put everything back together. Then, it’s time to pack up ORION, trailer her to Niantic and put her in the water! There is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel.