Black Friday

Part of our daily morning routine consists of making coffee, checking e-mail and the weather (OK, and maybe a game of spider solitaire or two). The forecast for today called for rain. LOTS of rain. Normally not a problem, but when the companionway hatch isn’t in place, and there are a few open holes in various places in the deck, and you need to do some painting, it can become a problem. And lots of rain can become a very big problem. Luckily for us, the forecast didn’t quite pan out as … well… forecasted. It did rain, but not the torrential downpour of biblical proportions that we were expecting. We were able to tarp off the cockpit and cover any holes in the deck that may have caused concern, which left us with our painting projects to worry about. We were painting the anti-fouling (below the water-line) which requires a wet sand anyway, so that part was OK in the rain. Man, what a dirty and toxic job. The anti-foul is supposed to kill any marine critters that want to grow on your hull, so it’s basically a biocide. We got all dolled up in coveralls, masks, gloves and goggles to go at it. Nasty, but with the two of us it went pretty quickly. The next step is the primer. Even though it goes under water, you’re still not supposed to put it on in the rain. The weather couldn’t quite make up its mind. Clouds loomed, then went away feigning disinterest, only to come running back with cracks of thunder and nasty intentions that sent us running under cover. A few spits of rain, and the clouds again would retreat. My old rule of thumb when painting my last boat was that if it was not actively raining, you’re fine. So we armed ourselves with rollers and rags and went for it. We got 99.9% of the hull under the water line covered when the rain decided that we needed a break. We had to wait only about half an hour before Thor got distracted again and left us to finish the last remaining swath. The second coat was delayed by more hollow threats, with associated false starts. Finally in the afternoon, the clouds started to disperse more completely, and we were able to finish the second coat in one smooth go. The boat looks much nicer without the patchwork of old anti-fouling and random patches of primer that she wore before. All the while we were running in and out of the rain with our paint brushes, Ishmail was finishing up the floors. Well, his part is done anyways. Now Serena gets to take all of the floor boards outside and get several coats of varnish on them. And varnish inside the cabin where the floors don’t come up. Fun for her! Also Mehmet came today, with some prompting… and got the bow plate welded on. I shouldn’t poke fun at Serena for the varnishing because my turn comes next with grinding and painting.
After a productive day, our friends John and Aysel came over with a few beers to while away the evening hours and allow us to catch up on the past year. And they have had an eventful one. John’s home (well one of them anyways) is in Haiti and this is where they were at the time of the earthquake. Actually, on that day they were in Port-au-Prince, sitting in a café that was no longer in existence three hours after they returned home. To say the least, they were pretty affected by what they saw and experienced. After John offered his help to several different aid organizations (he is local, knows the culture and speaks many languages) he was turned down for the reason of “We know what we are doing. We have been to Africa.” To John and Aysel, it was pretty apparent that these agencies didn’t have a clue but fortunately stumbled upon an organization from Turkey that seemed to have a realistic approach to the aid they were offering. So now they are traveling in Turkey with this organization (Kimse Yok Mu –translation: Is Anybody There?) raising awareness and also trying to find companies that would like to bring business opportunities to Haiti. It’s kept them very busy with traveling and meetings and will hopefully have the end result of bringing jobs and money to the Haitians. After much conversation, the evening finally came to and end when Aysel got tired and pulled John away, down the ladder for the walk to their boat.

Grumpy...

...and grumpy