The Varnishing Saga Continues

It's getting there. It's got the base coat on and a few layers of topcoat past this. You can still see some grain in it though, which mars the mirror finish effect I'd like. So we'll hit it with some 220 grit, then some 400, and strain the last coat to see if we can get it closer to perfect. Either way, it's in good enough shape for the Wooden Boat Festival in a few weeks.


We put metal primer stuff on the anchor chain and painted the warning marks on it again (they become visible at the hawsepipe when the anchor is at the waterline, so that you don't slam the anchor fluke first into the side of the boat). Hopefully the paint will last a bit longer on it with that prep. Plus the primer is so pretty, I have an idea that we should paint the 300 feet of chain (well, maybe 150' anyway). Shiny is good!

Slaying the Mighty Humpies

We caught real fish this time around.


Eighteen of them actually. But with five licenses onboard, that wasn't even the limit. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay and keep catching them. That work thing always gets in the way. I would be so good at being independently wealthy!


This is the Captain's Happy Place. The salmon were jumping all over, the sunset was gorgeous.


I think anywhere on the boat is Nity's Happy Place.


And the fish were all processed and vacuum-packed before we even hit the dock. Good times!

Down To Bare Wood

And now begins the layering up of varnish. The Tufshield has both a Base Coat and then a glossy Top Coat. We did get a coat of base on it yesterday after this picture and it is going to be quite stunning, I think. The plan is 4 coats of base, followed by a couple of top and see where we're at. That's supposed to give you the look of 10-12 layers of straight varnish. We shall see.

Brock is off driving the Royal today, so I'm left to my own devices. Hopefully that won't result in any Jamie-adventures. I'll try to behave and follow the rules and not drop anything!

Mahogany Continued

We're getting there. Have chemically stripped all of the wood down to bare. Brock will lightly sand with 90 grit now, I will follow along behind him with 120 grit, then we'll end it with 400 grit for that perfectly smooth finish. It's all that grunt prep work for now, which is one of the life lessons I've always worked on. At 39 with a classic yacht to care for, I seem to finally be getting it, with the right encouragement (by which I mean, a man who will not let me get by with anything less!).


After today's efforts comes the fun part! I was originally going to go with Epifanes clear polyurethane, as Brock has had good luck with their products and forums are highly complimentary as well. But when we were at Fisheries Supply (one of my very favorite places on earth), their staff was extremely enthusiastic about the Tufshield products in our Northwest environment. It's expensive, but with boats, what isn't? They steered us well in the past with the Top Secret products, so we decided to go with their experience.

Alright, now I'm just stalling. I can hear the captain out there, rustling electrical cords and banging about. So I'm off to assist. At least it's nice and overcast.

OK, Woodworking People, I Need Some Help

It's time for some annual varnish and we've been taking it down a bit more to bare wood. The caprail is made of Honduras mahogany. Previously I've been able to get away with just a light sanding and a topcoat of varnish. But in several spots, we've needed to get down to the wood itself.


And there's my problem. Wherever we sand, the amber color (the varnish) disappears and is replaced by a darker reddish color (on the left in the above photo - the natural color of the wood). Either of which would be fine, but the combination of patchwork colors is completely unacceptable.

So my questions are:
1.) Why is this happening?
2.) How did they get it to the golden amber color?
3.) Am I going to have to take the whole frippin' thing down to wood and live with a reddish caprail from here forward?

The ideas we've kicked around tonight have ranged from chemical strippers to heat guns (Brock doesn't think I have the patience for that, but if it works without sacrificing any wood, he might be surprised). I've read Wittman, who deplores sanding more than anything when doing brightwork and I can be a disciple and learn to heat/scrape.

Anybody out there understand WHY my mahogany is going red on me? Is that it's natural color? It would probably be spectacular that way as well (I love my dark cherry floors, after all). But I just don't get it.

****More research later...OK, so apparently Honduras mahogany is naturally a "coppery-brown" reddish wood. I still can't figure out how they got it blonde. A stain? I do like the blonde look, but don't want the "blonde-russet patchwork quilt after years of varnish repairs" which was described by some folks. Russet OR blonde. Not both.

Meanwhile, Brock has acquired both heat gun/scraper and a gallon of chemical stripper. Evidently, we each get a five-foot section and we'll "race" to see who gets done first. I may have to remind him that the quality of the job matters as well. There's little doubt in my mind that chemicals will be faster.

++++ Later again...ooooh, my new very favorite friend ~ the heat gun! Wow, that was truly awesome, the varnish just came right off of her sweet and easy. And for all of the detail areas (window frames, etc), well, I'm never going back to any other lame techniques. That is much too easy (no dripping of chemicals, blowing of sawdust)! I'm thinking the mahogany is just going to be darker than it was. Which is fine with me as long as it's consistent. Should actually be quite lovely, I think. But HOW DID THEY GET IT BLONDE IN THE FIRST PLACE???

And Catching More Is Even Better!

They're practically jumping in the boat now! And I learned an important lesson: Never get between a fisherman and the rod that just kicked out of the downrigger. OUCH! I have bruises!

Catching Is Much Better Than Fishing

Got ourselves some dinner for tonight! A well-deserved reward for a long week's worth of work. Nice job, Dean-o! And the Dall's porpoises jumping right near the side of the boat is an added treat. This is indeed why I live on a boat!

Haulout 2009

SPLASH! After days of grueling work (some of us more than others), we have improved KJ in some big ways. Her bottom is freshly painted. It was actually in great shape when she came out of the water, much better than I had expected, which was a nice surprise. No growth, bottom paint in good shape. It was just the waterline where the bottom paint had sloughed off that looked pretty crummy. The rest was really good.


MAJOR kudos to Dean and Joe, our master welders, for their incredible rudder modification (which will be a post unto itself ~ it's genius, really). And to Kris and Danny for their unflagging efforts in painting and keeping the crew fed while I was at work. And to Clark for his expert and diligent sanding & painting. To Brock, with whom without I could never, ever do this. (How you appeared in my life when I needed you the most and made my personal Fairy Tale Happy Ending a reality is unbelievable magic.) Brock designed the rudder modifications with Dean ~ watching the two of them brainstorm something is an incredible thing. We managed to stay almost within budget (maybe over by just a little, but pretty close). Dean said I've pretty much figured out the perfect way to do the whole boat thing: I had to work every day this week and would mostly appear in the evening to applaud the progress that was made daily.


I did show up to paint the bottom of the keel; it was sort of my penance for having to be at my day job and not be here for a lot of the grunt work. I figured crawling around on the ground to get to the very bottomest bits more than made up for it, really. I discovered that I really love bottom painting ~ it's total Jamie style. None of that "tape it off, be neat and precise and tidy and don't get any paint on anything else." Nope, it's the "Just get it on everything you see" approach. I have that skill.

So now we're at anchor again, ready to slay the pink salmon in the morning. I'm anticipating a well-deserved sleep-in while Brock and Dean fish. I'm so very, very content.

OK, not too much work yet

Other than some really grueling fishing. Brock even had to move inside when it got too blustery out. SB thought it was hilarious to fish from inside the house.


We all thought his first salmon was hilarious too. OK, work shall commence in the morning!

The Busiest Week Ever Is Coming

IT'S HAULOUT TIME!! OK, people, this is it. We have the next five days mapped out to the minute. Cure time, second coats, welding schedule...It all begins at 8:15 tomorrow morning when KJ comes out of the water.


Just for an update: all the bad wood was removed from that corner & my man has it remodeled. His skills will be very handy in the coming days.


We all had a great time playing on the water again this weekend.


Now we're done playing and it's WORK, WORK, WORK!


C'mon, kid, I said WORK!

Sharks After Dark Approaches!

Tonight at 9:00 on Discovery Channel! Potential glimpses of M/V Katherine Jane on Sharks After Dark. I'm pretty excited about it, while also being well aware that we may not even get a peek at her.

We're off to watch over at a friend's house ~ cross your fingers!

Hot Summer Nights

It's been so hot here lately that when I looked at the thermometer on the helm station today and it read 87 degrees, my brain registered that as "Oh wow, it's really cooling off!" We've been out enjoying the boat constantly ~ swimming in Lake Washington, jumping off the top deck, anchoring out overnight, chartering for the Blue Angels. Good times.


There have been company parties, swimming at Golden Gardens (OK, just a quick dunk really ~ even on a 100 degree day, the sound is still cold!), mucho beach volleyball.


We've camped on the beach at La Push, doing the whole Twilight tour in Forks (yes, I've read all the books! I'm a good Twilight Mom), hauling our bear canister along with us.


The captain has been fishing ~ caught 2 sturgeon, both too small, but hey, he had a blast anyway!


And me? I'm looking forward to our next big project in a couple of weeks: the haul-out of Katherine Jane. My camera finally died yesterday (it's been awfully well-used over the past several years), so I'm not sure yet how I'll bring you the play-by-play, but I'll figure something out. Happy Summer, everyone!