Head Refit: Painting Part 1

With the construction of the new head completed, we are finally able to convert the head from a rainbow of colors from all the different materials used to a single monochromatic creation on serenity. White walls, white floor, white everything.  

on the side of the shower that has the shower head, I painted a layer of epoxy just to make sure that the shower water doesn’t work it’s way into the wood. 

On the other side, I did not because the shower water isn’t as intensely spraying onto it’s surface.  

What paint am I using? Why am I not using primer? 

I’m painting the entire head with bilgekote from Interlux. I don’t use primer under bilgekote because I find that it works just fine when painted onto a bare surface.  

Bilges are wet and so are showers, so it makes sense to paint the entire shower with it. Right? 

In a few years, we will all know for sure. In the mean time, I’m going on a hunch that I feel will work out in the end! 

Head Refit: Cabinets Part 3

The rough fitting of the wood is competed, now it is time to make everything fit better and more smoothly.

The walls and lower cabinet are competed but the cabinet above the sink is still awaiting construction.

I trimmed the top of the table to make the countertop fit better in there and also rounded all the corners of the wood. Nothing is more dangerous in a boat than a sharp corner! Having a rounded edge means that if you bump into the wood while underway, you won’t stab yourself!

The fiddleblock for the shelf was an inspiration from Maddie. She wanted it to “swoop out of nothing” and then I set a random diagonal offcut on the shelf. Maddie was walking by the head and loved the look of the diagonal piece of wood!

The fiddleblock was then cut out of Cryptomeria and fastened to the edge of the shelf. I made sure that the blonde parts of the wood met up at the edge of the shelf so that the fiddleblock would then “emerge” from the blonde and return to the red look of the rest of the head. 

Killing Mold with Vinegar

Mold is a terrible scourge on a yacht. It lives in the wood of the interior and is always lurking just below the surface, waiting for the perfect conditions to bloom and rise up! 

Mold is not just fuzzy and annoying, it can also pose great respiratory concerns! Mold spores can trigger symptoms as mild as allergic reactions all the way up to much more serious conditions like aspergilliousis. 

Killing mold (or at least driving it back into the wood where you won’t be exposed to it) is actually simple to accomplish. 

Maddie sprayed straight white vinegar onto the afflicted areas and let it sit for a full hour. Then she scrubbed the surface with a stiff brush (we used a new toilet bowl brush) to get into all the nooks and crannies of the interior joinery. After that she wiped the surfaces down with a dry towel.  

You might be wondering about the vinegar smell. Let me assure you that the smell is strong but it does air out quickly with the hatches open. So, be sure to do this on a dry day when you can open up the hatches instead of on a rainy day when you will be trapped without ventilation inside what would smell like a pickle jar! 

Terciera, a Magical Wonderland

Just like siblings have nicknames for each other, the islands have nicknames as well. Flores is the garden island with its lush forests and mystical waterfalls; Sao Jorge has great cheese; Sao Miguel has mind blowing lakes, and Terceira is the “party island”.  

While they do have many parties (pretty much all the time!), Terceira does have its own beauty. 

The botanical gardens in the heart of the town are breathtaking. Now that spring has arrived, the flowers are beginning to bloom and the whole area is changing in wonderful ways. 

The constant showers (even on cloudless days) produce rainbows all the time. It seems that every time you look off into the distance, there will be a rainbow in the sky! 

This tiny island out in the middle of the Atlantic is a world unto itself. Created in the raging fires of a volcano, it has blossomed into an oasis of tranquility and beauty on your transatlantic passage. 

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!