Feb. 11
Yesterday, to make room to step the mast, I cut down an overhanging tree branch, and took down the canopy which had protected me from the sun and the boat from the rain (mostly) since August. Without the blue cover overhead, the paint color shows much more distincly green, as I'd intended.
Of course, as soon as I had the canopy down it started to rain.
I stepped the mast for the first time. It was even easier than I had expected to put the heel of the mast against the step, walk it up, and drop the tenon into the step, and secure it to the forward thwart with the stainless clamp which was made for that purpose. So easy, in fact, that I believe I will be able to lower the mast and row under low bridges. That will give me access to spots I have not explored before. The next calm day I will hoist the sail and check out the rigging.
Today I gave the inside bottom a finish coat of paint, filled all the little pinholes in the deck, and repainted antifouling red paint below the waterline which had been streaked by last week's paint disaster.
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As I was working this afternoon, a passerby in a little outboard inflatable came close enough to compliment the look of the boat. Anyone who wants to admire my boat is a welcome visitor, so I invited the fellow ashore for a closer look. Turns out, he is a shipwright who just finished building a 65' catamaran in Honduras, so I began to take his compliments seriously. He loved the boat and said I've done a "fantastic job". A better man would have kissed him.
My #4 granddaughter, whose job it will be to christen the boat, will celebrate her second birthday tomorrow, but I'll be back to boatbuilding Sunday.
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