Repairing Dry Core

Cored fiberglass is great when it works well because it makes the the structure significantly stronger without adding much weight. The only problem with cores is if there is going to be any problem with the structure, it will be in the core!

Cores are like a sponge, soaking in the resin that is covering them. If the core is over-saturated with resin, it will result in a brittle structure. If the core is under-saturated with resin, it will be dry and not as strong as expected.

This one piece of cored sole in our head during the head refit suffered from a dry core. It was just a little soft no matter how many layers of fiberglass I applied over it (I applied 9 layers of fiberglass!) so the decision was made to put more epoxy into the core.

I had two choices, I could either strip off the fiberglass and expose the dry core, or I could make my own access to it. I chose the easier way!

I drilled a pattern of holes in the top of the core, but not all the way through. This would allow resin to soak into the core and saturate it further. The holes were evenly spaced about 1/2 inch apart to allow the resin to soak through and through, saturating everything.

The wonderful part was after the resin had cured, I could test it by stepping on it and if the core was still soft, I could always simply pour more in through the holes. Luckily, this one attempt fixed the whole issue and it became stiff as a board!

Head Refit: Shower Sole Part 3

Epoxy is expensive and impractical to have been using for a project of this size! I switched to polyester resin.

One gallon of epoxy cost $112. One gallon of Polyester cost €18!

That is a major difference! I was using epoxy because it is what I have learned with and what I was comfortable with. I have always done relatively small projects so the plan was simply to scale the project up to this much larger size.

This polyester resin has fairing compound already mixed in with it, so all I need to do is mix in the catalyst and smear it on everything. It also sands more easily than the 407 thickener that I had been using in the past.

Everything got a layer of fairing putty so that the next time I sand, everything will simply sand down to a uniform surface. Oh, and the best part about this resin is the curing time. 20 minutes instead of 4 hours! This means that additional layers can occur in the same day!

Mold

The Azores have a nice cool wet winter climate, perfect for growing mold.

We left the boat for about a month of the Christmas holiday and when we returned, the inside of our home was covered in a milky green hue.

This fuzzy surface was most disturbing, as it is just the equivalent of a plants flower. The real organism was living deep inside all of the wood on our boat. Our home is but a varnished and painted fungus.

Head Refit: Shower Sole Part 2

We have a shower floor! We can stand in here! Ouch, there are some prickly spots!

The fiberglass is mostly smooth, but there are some sharp spots, and some rough spots, and worst of all, some holes.

I thickened the epoxy with 407, as it gives good strength, somewhat ease of fairing, and most importantly, that lovely purple color! Once the surface was smoothed up, it was just a matter of sanding, then filling, then sanding, then filling, then sanding for days on end.

Fairing honestly felt like it was the longest part of the project. In the beginning, we had a giant hole. Once the foam went it, there was a drastic and rapid transformation. Progress! Fairing is just more of the same, with lots of work hours and little change. This can really dampen morale in the boat when days are spent working but it looks as if nothing is occurring.

Hurricane Impacts on Transatlantic Passage

When I was a small child growing up in Puerto Rico, I thought that hurricanes were conscious beings. That they could make choices about where to go and if they made the right choices, they could grow larger and stronger. The wrong choices would weaken them. I also thought that they chose to attack small islands in the Caribbean when they wanted to, or chose to avoid the small islands and spare the islanders who were living there. I was 5, give me a break.

Now that I’m older, I understand that hurricanes are merely weather phenomenon and their actions are not controlled by conscious choices but by the forces acting on them.

Crossing the North Atlantic in the Summer means that you will need to be aware of and avoiding the Hurricanes that (typically) are raging south of you.

Every year is different and every hurricane is special, but in general, hurricanes form off the coast of Africa and intensify as they travel across the Atlantic. Once they get to the Caribbean, they are powerful and will either deviate north which will cause them to skirt the East Coast of the United States or they will slam into the Gulf of Mexico.

In general, if you are North of the Doldrums, and East of Bermuda, then you are safe from hurricanes. Hurricanes have trouble making it through the Doldrums and tend to lose a lot of steam as they venture north. They are also incapable of traveling through the high pressure system known as the Azores High, which is why the Azores are safe from Hurricanes.

We know this information very well, but do the hurricanes?

In 2018, we were in the Harbor of Bermuda when Hurricane Chris was approaching. We sailed away and left to hide further east of it as it raged on to the North West of our position. We left Bermuda on July 9 and made it to Horta, Faial, Azores, on August 2. We had great sailing going across and were safe in our knowledge that we were where hurricanes could not reach us.

Debby formed in the path we sailed on August 9.
Ernesto formed in the path we sailed on August 15.
Joyce formed in the path we sailed on September 12.
Leslie formed in the path we sailed on September 23.

You get the picture. There is no safe place from a hurricane while out in the ocean. Areas of the ocean that are famous for stopping the passage of a hurricane and deflecting them away actually had hurricanes (Leslie) spawn in there and thrive for over a month!

The weather patterns of the past have changed and the storms are becoming more vivid and with fewer rules that they must abide by.

Hurricanes are a major consideration for choosing what route and when to sail across the Atlantic, but the important part is to make sure your yacht is never caught in the path of a hurricane. Do what you can to avoid them and steer clear of them because your life does depend on it.