Busy Week

I am a pretty big optimist. It can also be one of my downfalls. I have always tackled problems with the attitude, "No problem...two weeks". Well, the last thing in preparing the top-deck for epoxy filling, gelcoat repair and paint, was tackling the bow pulpit. I have been putting this off to the bitter end as I really didn't want to find out how bad it was. Very abnormal for me. Here is the best picture I have of what the bow pulpit looked like.

If you look closely, some previous owner hacked this job. Apparently at one point, the teak had been replaced with plywood and then a very poor attempt at fiberglass was made. As you can see, it was all rotten, a ton of screws in, falling apart...just nasty. I really, really was not looking forward to finding what was underneath. But, it needed to be done. I began chipping away and peeling off and taking my trusty boat chisel, scraped all the crap off. Much to my surprise, it all came off relatively quickly and most of the gelcoat underneath was still in tact. Here is the afterwards picture.

With a little work on the gelcoat, some sanding, it will be good as new.

On to other stuff. During the week while we are working on the boat, we stay at Jeanne's parent's house in St. Petersburg, as they are only ten minutes from where we have the boat. I'd like to thank them immensely for putting up with us and their hospitality. Love you guys. Well, while there this week, good and close friends of the family came to visit, Chuck and Kay. We had a wonderful visit with them and it was good to see them again. Here is a nice picture of Kay, Jeanne, Chuck and Katie (Jeanne's mother).

Back to boat stuff. We own an engine! Thanks to our new good friends, Reggie and Barbara of SV Submit. We drove over to meet them in Jacksonville yesterday and to take a look at their engine, a Perkins 4.107 they have for sale, which is currently in their boat. After hearing it run and so forth, we completed the transaction. I feel bad for Reggie as I was hoping to assist him in extracting the engine, but could not as that leads to the next topic.

Sarah, Jeanne's daughter, turned 21 yesterday. We took her and some of her close friends out to dinner last night. Here is a nice one of her with, of course, a shot.

Tonight we have a big BBQ planned for her birthday where no doubt, the house is going to be packed with her friends and family...but mostly termites.

Big week next week. Hopefully we will take delivery of our engine and start filling holes. Stay tuned.

- The Captain