Monday 26 Oct, HHN, boat winterizing day 26:
More like autumn weather now. Chilly in the morning, and mist coming off the river that does not clear till mid afternoon. Not motivating weather, and hence today becomes a not-much-done-day on Cloudy Bay.

I start by lightly wet’n’dry sand papering the plastic of the multipurpose mast antenna which I had rejuvenated yesterday. I’ve decided I will give it a quick coat of paint to protect the plastic parts from the sun. While doing that, I dream up how I can make it a small protective cover out of sunbrella. But I realise my fertile brain is going too far on this one as that inner voice resounds: “Damnit Glen, paint will be enough!”. Now that all the rust marks and yellowing are sanded off the white, and the stainless metal parts polished up, the antenna looks like new again. I’m quite pleased. I don’t think those guys in Germany are going to manage to sell me a new one, at least not for now. Their bad for taking so long to get back to me.

Just as I’m finishing, I get the call from Ray: „The sails have arrived ”. And I’m dressed and off the boat, with camera in hand, like my pants are on fire! I don’t want to miss the unloading. With my trusty GoCycle bike on turbo-boost, I arrive just in time to catch Ray pulling the loaded pallet out of the delivery truck. Oh my … that’s a big volume, and I immediately wonder how I’ll fit all this into the saloon. They look bigger than the last sails.
The top section of the mainsail battens and the battens for the cutter are separate in a long tub. The other mainsail battens are in a long coils with the sails. Normally, I’d simply bring them up onto the boat using a halyard. But with the mast down that’s not possible.
So, the plan is: with the swim platform door closed, we will use the forklift to bring each sail up to the small doorway in the shrink wrap, then somehow manhandle them into the cabin. But because the ground is very wet at the moment and the forklift wheels will likely sink near the boat, we decide to just leave the packaged sails in the Weaver Boats workshop just for now. It’s a very dusty place, but the sails are nicely protected in wrapped plastic. What would I do without Ray, and Weaver Boats?

Next, is a trip to the hardware store for specialized paint to cover the rusty bits on the outhaul cylinder. I have bought 3 paints. First, will be a rust stabilizer, which neutralizes the rust and stops the oxidation from continuing under the new paint (otherwise the rust spots will just breakout again, in the near future). Then a primer, and finally a topcoat to get an overall matt black finish.
As usual with any paint job, preparation is key. Especially with rusty steel. So I set about sanding the whole cylinder with wet’n’dry, using detergent in the water to ensure degreasing too. By the time I’ve finished, it’s obvious it will not be dry enough to paint today. That will have to wait for a dry day. Yes, some rust will return in that time, but interestingly, the instructions on the rust neutralizer say that there must have some rust for it to work, and oddly, if painted on bare metal, it might actually cause rust. Work that one out if you can!

Not sure where the evening went to. I ended up sorting through all the several external hard drives we have on the boat, trying to find some space to back up all the video footage I’m taking. One of the drives is full of movies and yes, I get tempted into watching one. It feels nice to get cozy in the saloon and being entertained for once. But I must not let this be a habit, or I’ll get nothing done!