Since we arrived in New Jersey we have been dividing our time between two groups of tasks: Visiting family, and boat projects.

The BEFORE picture: Our companionway looking a bit the worse for wear, and decidedly un-yachtlike.

Most of the projects have been simple, mundane and routine–like rebuilding a toilet pump.  Ah, glamorous yacht ownership!

The biggest project we have undertaken is to refinish the wood in the cockpit.  Amel greatly appreciated the beauty of wood on a boat.  Anybody who has seen the interior of any of their boats would see that!  They also understood that wood on the exterior of a boat requires a very steady diet of maintenance, so they kept exterior wood to a minimum.  The companionway slide, and some trip around it is really all there is.

Ours was in pretty rough shape.  It had last been done before we bought the boat with a product called “Cetol.”  Everybody has their own opinion about the esthetics of various wood finishes, but I have to agree with a friend of ours who’s comment was, “…looks like whale snot.” To my eye, you might as well paint the wood with thin orange paint.  It wasn’t a look I wanted to continue, and the finish was failing, so it has to all come off and be done properly.

Yesterday I removed all the various pieces that can be removed, some required significant surgery to get apart. Everything was rough sanded.  Today was more sanding, replacing the veneer on the companionway slide, and getting everything ready for applying the varnish and getting the look we really want.  If the weather cooperates, we should be looking at three or four days for finishing the varnish.

It is times like this I am really, really glad I do not own a wooden boat!

Other important jobs are pending.  Getting to the top of both masts to retrieve lost halyards, and fix a broken light, and installing our new radar.  Upgrading our “vintage” radar set has been on our list of things to do for a while, but got bumped up several notches in priority when our old unit (original when the boat was built) died on the trip up here.