Hello! I was exhausted. Faced with another coat on the hull and 2 top coats on the roof before leaving the dry dock, I couldn't do it all and fit in a night's sleep.
So I stocked up, cleaned the hull and got to work. At 03:15 I finished the 4th and final coat on the hull and it looked excellent:
And then the roof... it had the 2 epoxy undercoats, and the top coats required masking tape around the edges and all the hand rails, which along with a clean took almost 3 hours. But when I finally got to painting it went quickly, and I finished the first coat at 07:45. It needed 6 hours before overcoating, so I started cleaning the dry dock and did a little orange paint on the bow.
At 14:30 I did the final coat, and although I didn't manage everything (I still need to paint the gunwales, and touch up the topside), to have the hull fully epoxied and the roof re-painted, along with a new deck, weed hatch and tiller tube... it was an epic 10 days.
And after fixing the tiller and about to let the water in, I noticed a little rattle in the rudder... the bolts were somewhat loose in the holes, and I was tempted to say "fuck it" and leave, but knowing I wouldn't get the chance to fix it for years I got the welder out and stopped the rattle:
And I always find the re-floating tense, but no holes, no leaks:
PHEW. And she looks so good!!
Although unfortunately in the dark on Tuesday when I left, I hadn't filled the coolant up enough so the engine overheated and steamed everywhere. Nothing damaged though, and the next day topped it up and ran the engine without issue.
And with a few days of catching up on sleep, pottering about, and an uneventful cruise back on Friday, I am getting ready for the next phase to make Katona warm and ready for moving southwards. It's nice to be excited about the boat again. :)
Until soon!
- Nick