Wacky Wednesday #5

I had heard great things about PoliGlow, and owned two full kits and the PoliOx bottle for a couple of years.  When, I finally got around to testing it on our black-hulled boat, I learned a few lessons:

1.  Use the PoliOx generously.  If you cover an automobile polisher (~$20 at Walmart, Target, etc.) with the powder, clean a no greater than a five foot section of hull.  I started with 15-20 feet...guess what? I had to go back again...and again...and, well, eventually I learned.

2.  Rinse.  If the hull does not look spotless, repeat step one.  Keep doing this until the wet hull looks EXACTLY like you want.  Otherwise, you will be re-doing it.  Trust me on this one.  There are still places I have to go back, remove the Glow, and re-Ox, not just re-Prep.  Oh, and make sure you rinse all the way down to the water.  It WILL eat paint.  Don't say I didn't warn you, not to mention the bottle too in big letters.  Luckily, I did read this so I managed to not remove any excess.

3.  Once you have the entire hull on one side completed, notice I said one side, then you are ready for the PoliPrep.  Do not try to do both sides at once, you will be repeating yourself later...

4.  For the PoliPrep, I put on come coveralls and goggles and hung out on a kayak with the buffer again.  Just make sure your power cord is fused and plugged into a GCA socket.  Here is the fun part...while using the buffer with one hand, keep the cord out of the water and fend yourself off of the hull with the other.  Yes, your arms get tired; your legs will too.  Luckily, our waterline was about the kayak height, so I wasn't bumping the clean hull area.  Again, five foot sections...notice a trend here?  Guess where else it states this?  Yep, the bottle.

5.  This is where I screwed up, and now laugh at myself.  I PoliOxed and PoliPreped the entire hull.  Then went to Glow.  Bad idea.  Ox one side at a time, Prep the entire side, then go back and re-Prep the first 5' section.  Once this dries (follow the time on the bottle), take out the sponge with the pad to Glow.  Again, you will be repeating a lot more if you don't listen to this...It is amazing how much junk can build up on a clean hull in the time it takes you to work five feet of it.

6.  For PoliGlow, use the big sponge...in your gloved hand.  I could see maybe trying to use it on a stick if you are hauled out, but the evenness of pressure really requires a hand.  Use the little piece of cloth to wipe any drips quickly.  It is fairly useless for anything else.  Five foot sections again...and overlap them.  It didn't seem to make a difference in how far the overlap was.  I did get better, cleaner coverage using the sponge vertically instead of horizontally.  This took a little longer to dry, but was worth it.

7.  Go do something else for ten minutes...or stare at polish drying.

8.  Repeat the Glow coat on the same five feet.

9.  Repeat steps 6-8 until you see the shine you want.  It took me about 5-10 coats depending on the part of the hull.  Ignore the coats amount on the bottle, use more (or fewer) until it looks like you want when it is dry.  Granted, we had not had anyone successfully de-ox it in years...many many years.

10. Move over five feet.  Repeat from step 5 for the next five feet.

While it takes a while, it is worth it.  The good lesson learned?  Nothing worth doing is easy.  I put in days vice the hours I had hoped for, and still had touch-up work to do where I had rushed.  However, on a hull that at least four "marine cleaners/handymen/guy on the docks" had tried to unsuccessfully clean/buff/polish, I can now see my reflection...in color...on a black hull.  Oh, and remember, make sure that the varnishing you did that morning is dry before pulling out the automobile buffer...just saying...you never know...

Wacky Wednesday #4

Eight months pregnant, in the port lazarette, with the 9/16" wrench. Sometimes I feel like I am playing clue...what I looked like to others, well I probably don't want to know ;). Enjoy the mental humor this week. Oh, and if you must know, I was hard resetting the inverter/battery charger since it likes to have a mind of its own on occaision.

Wacky Wednesday #3 ~ahem~ Thursday

Alright, so lots of new stuff in work for the website, so was distracted from writing this yesterday.  You'll have to check back soon!

If you sail, I am sure you are familiar with the apprehension of pulling in somewhere unknown for the first time.  Sure, you read the charts and have the GPS up and are standing by your radio.  You're even following the directions given to you by the marina...in this case Hotel Corral in Ensenada.

Now, add on two-handing a 37' full-keel sailboat in the fog.  In our defense, it was not foggy when we started pulling into Bahia Todos los Santos ("All Saints Bay").  But, by the time we were hitting the fog, it had wrapped around us to the point we were calling on all of the saints to keep us off the rocks.  You see, there is this breakwater for Hotel Corral that the GPS wanted us to motor right through.  Based on course and speed, we were very close, but didn't want to turn too early, or you miss the tiny entrance.  Heading back out to sea to wait out the fog was not an option either due to the heavy shipping traffic moving in and out.  We could hear their horns, and turning out would force us South right into their lanes.

What did we do?  Well, while my better half manned the tiller, I went to the bow for a Titanic - King of the World moment.  I could hear breakers.  That was not good.  However, I couldn't see anything and we knew we had shoreline to the left as well.  I yelled back that I heard them from ahead, and we swapped positions to double-check.  Water depth was still good.  5+ feet below the keel...but it would be all the way in we knew.  Right after I took the helm, I saw rocks.  Not little rocks either. mid-size boulders jutting up ready to eat us.  I think that I was already turning, thank the gods for a tiller - will always believe it is a faster method of turning, by the time that I yelled out "Turning starboard, ROCKS!" I am sure it was loud enough to be heard, though it may have been a bit hysterical in tone.  It wasn't until I was parallel to the breakwater and breathing again that we could see the rocks from the bow.  And then, it was mainly looking down to make sure we weren't getting too close to any that were submerged.

With the initial shock over and the marina three-turn narrow channel up ahead, the fog was lingering.  However, to our luck, the marina itself, as we have come to find out on follow up trips, seems to always be an oasis.  You pass the entrance marker and the fog stops.  Gladly, as I think my nerves were dead.

The lesson this week?  Fog is fickle...while you think you should be able to see better from the bow, that is not always the case.  Communication is key, and is the primary reason we made it safely.  Never assume your bow lookout (or the helm in the other direction) can see anything you do.  Yelling works on a 37' barely.  I would recommend something else (walkie-talkie like) for bigger or even high winds in smaller boats.  You never know what you are going to encounter on a gorgeous day. :)

Wacky Wednesday #2 - Reef Points Hold the Sail

Have you ever tried reefing a sail while pulling on the "reef points?" Though there are alway discrepancies based on who tells a story, the end result cannot be denied. With green crew three days out of port on a Trans-pac to Hawaii...you see where this is going already, don't you...the reef points were ~ahem~ either really old and decayed or pulled on too tightly. Most likely, it was somewhere in the middle ground. Unfortunately, a new main was not in the budget at the time, and turning back was not an option as we were on the clock. So, what do you do? What any Captain would; double reef the main. Oh, and get the wife to stitch in the reef points whilst sailing. Hey. It worked, and the main is still on that boat. Stories like that, we can never get rid of the thing now.
The lesson? Never leave home without sail tape, a sail needle, waxed thread and a wife!

Wacky Wednesday #1 - Crystal's Epoxy Lessons Learned

Welcome to Wacky Wednesday posts, where we get to be creative and post a humors, yet true anecdote or story from our travails...enjoy!  This week's comes from an email sent between owners a few years back following a head installation:

1. When you are mixing the epoxy, you are sure you don't have/haven't
made nearly enough and will invariably have to make a second batch. After
starting on the first hole, you realize you have enough to patch at
least two cannon ball holes at the waterline while sailing. Who knew?

2. Getting past mayonnaise is really, really difficult and annoying. Why
can't it be as easy as getting past ketchup? Once you get peanut butter,
though, all the pain was worth it. Well, maybe not bit you feel
accomplished at epoxy now and it sounded good. (Think I made it up?  Read the instructions on how to mix West System epoxy here: http://www.westsystem.com/ss/fillers-and-additives)


3. The rag is a last minute addition as you are running/walking very
quickly so that your peanut butter doesn't harden before you use
it..."oh (bleep)" followed by grabbing whatever looks disposable between
where you mixed the stuff and the "project." At least the gloves were
donned prior to the mixing and a rag managed to find its way under the
rusty epoxy cans.

4. Is this the stuff they used to make the river of evil in Ghostbusters
2? Yes, I am sitting in the vicinity sniffing the fumes as I write.  Seriously, it looks just like it.

5. The more artistic I try to become, the more of a mess I make and the
worse the outcome looks. On a good note you can just wipe up everything
on top with the little spreader stick, that got you into artistic
trouble in the first place, and start over. This requires the use of
much more epoxy, but still not enough to justify step one.

6. Anytime you try this with a cat around, it takes a forceful removing
of the cat at least three times before they decide that you are evil and
run off to find someone more pleasant to harass, I mean help.