Owning an old sailboat can be a curse or a blessing, depending on your personality, your mood at any given moment and on how many things need fixing, varnishing or just plain head scratching.
I've come to the conclusion that if you strive for perfection buy a new boat, otherwise you're likely to become crankier than an old Hurth transmission.
Having finished a fairly large translation on Wednesday, I drove to the marina Thursday morning to do a little maintenance. I could call it "Zen and the art of boat maintenance", but that would be about as kitsch as a flock of pink flamingos on my lawn. Nevertheless, boat maintenance can become a spiritual and liberating experience, to me anyway.
Today I decided to try some interior painting. The bare panel in the picture below has been bugging me far too long. It's also sagging and needs trim to hold the edges firmly in place.
While I was at it, why not paint the panel on the portside over the stove and, to get more mileage out of the brush, may as well paint the bare plywood in the pots and pans cupboard.
If anybody is looking for painting tips - forget it. I took the panels down, sanded them with 220 and slopped paint over them, one coat in the morning the other in the afternoon.
In the interval I made a tomato, pepper, onion, sweet corn and tuna concoction that would have tasted even better if I hadn't forgotten the wine. I also ran the engine for a while in reverse and forward to confuse the barnacles camping on the propeller. Amazing creatures, they could stick to a spinning propeller from here to China and arrive just as sane and healthy as if they had been sitting still all their lives.
That was enough "Zen maintenance" for the day. On the way home, I fed our vacationing friends' 7 cats and took this picture of the coastline.
I've come to the conclusion that if you strive for perfection buy a new boat, otherwise you're likely to become crankier than an old Hurth transmission.
Having finished a fairly large translation on Wednesday, I drove to the marina Thursday morning to do a little maintenance. I could call it "Zen and the art of boat maintenance", but that would be about as kitsch as a flock of pink flamingos on my lawn. Nevertheless, boat maintenance can become a spiritual and liberating experience, to me anyway.
Today I decided to try some interior painting. The bare panel in the picture below has been bugging me far too long. It's also sagging and needs trim to hold the edges firmly in place.
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| Sagging panel with light fixture |
While I was at it, why not paint the panel on the portside over the stove and, to get more mileage out of the brush, may as well paint the bare plywood in the pots and pans cupboard.
If anybody is looking for painting tips - forget it. I took the panels down, sanded them with 220 and slopped paint over them, one coat in the morning the other in the afternoon.
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| First coat |
That was enough "Zen maintenance" for the day. On the way home, I fed our vacationing friends' 7 cats and took this picture of the coastline.
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| Coastline view. Click on the picture and you'll see the "Cabo Carvoeiro" cape in the distance and the Berlenga Islands to the left under the cloud formation. |
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