Saturday - I actually got some varnish
on. I was a bit concerned about the bulkhead, as even a light sanding with
220 grit had left it looking a bit mottled. But, after all, the die had
been cast across the Rubicon, I couldn't "unsand" the planks.
I used a clear semi-gloss, Varathane Polyurethane - several books had
stated that any good polyurethane was fine for boat interiors, as long
as it was out of the UV, and it was much
cheaper than the purpose sold stuff at marine hardware places. I bought
a good badger hair brush, following the COB rule, China for initial,
Ox-hair for intermediate, and Badger for finish. Since this was just a
refresh of a reasonable finish I went straight to the Badger.
The coverage was great, just a few ounces for the entire 4'x8' side. It
went on well, but I should have used a chisel brush, and a light
positioned at an angle so as to show what was being covered - up in the
vee berth it was hard to see. Generally it went well, there were a
couple of small runs at the top, and another where I foolishly went
back and tried to "touch up" a holiday after the paint had turned
tacky. I'll have to sand and re-do those.
The other thing was that it wasn't
a badger hair brush, it was, rather, a china brush labeled prominently
on the packaging as Badger, with the china bit in smaller print. Oh
well. I'll have to look around and see if I can find a good brush
somewhere.
I also varnished a couple of cabinet doors, with the same 1015 Captains
Spar Varnish as I used a year or two ago on other doors. And, when done, I had
exactly the same disappointing results! Despite using 320 grit, and
mineral spirits and tack rag to clean there are numerous little
holidays in the coat. Looking at the old doors you see just the same,
but I had forgotten. Well, maybe I'll resand and try the polyurethane
over the top, or another coat of the 1015. It all looks better than it
did, anyway.
Late afternoon I headed back to Lancaster. I'd have loved to stay and
work, but my cat sitter was occupied with other duties and I hate to
impose of friends.
Friday 4 February
2011
Friday
- The plan was to get some brightwork done on the boat, and be back up to Lancaster in the late afternoon.
But everything took much longer than expected: the cleaning up of
various bits of stuff (old fittings, ornaments, even a miniature teevee
from the original owners), moving all the cushions and other dust
catches outside, sanding, cleaning up with mineral spirits. By the time
all that was done it was late afternoon, the wind had come up, and
there just wasn't time to apply the varnish.
I chose the starboard side paneling, as it was a smallish area. I am
really concerned more about the overhead, but this is an easier area to
practice on!
Since I'd cleared out the main cabin I slept in the aft cabin. I'd forgotten just how hard the cushions were back there. Yikes.
Book #16, read over the last couple of days on the Kindle, was Half Share, by Nathan Lowell. This is the second novel in the Shares
series, about a young merchant spaceman. Not quite as good as the
first, but two days evening entertainment for $5, so no complaints here.
Thursday 3 February 2011
Thursday
- It was a cold night. I actually had to turn on the little electric
heater a couple of times. Generally I'm too warm in the sleeping bag on
the boat, but not these evenings. Odd, because the days have been very
pleasant.
I did a bit of work on the boat in the morning, a bit of programming
scripts mid-day. In the early evening met with the boss, picked up a
check and my 1099 from last year. Now I can do taxes...yay.
There was an interesting conversation with a fellow sailor a couple
berths up. Bill had pulled his engine, an Atomic 4, out of his Islander
32 to overhaul it. He'd left the prop in, so he didn't have to put a
wedge in there. But the boat bottom cleaner had moved the prop while
cleaning in his scuba gear and started a small leak. And his bilge
pumps didn't kick on. Fortunately another boat noticed that the
Islander was riding unusually low, notified the marina office, and they
put a temporary pump on board to keep him dry. But he was nearly 16"
below his standard waterline, and had a lot of carpets and stuff ruined.
Wednesday 2 February 2011
Wednesday
- down to Ventura. There was a meeting with the clients' rep, who will
be running the scripts, and she picked up quickly how to use them, and
seemed happy. We were a bit concerned about the speed on their
machines, older XP boxes (the demo machine in the office was a 1.66GHz
P4!), but apparently it was good enough. There was a bit of feed back
on some formatting issues, and she pointed out an error in the
assembled table - data not currently used in any of the reports so it
skipped my notice.
Book #15, was The Bounty*,
by Caroline Alexander. This was another book on the infamous mutiny and
I didn't have high hopes for it. But it was actually a fairly good
book, with decent scholarship and attention to the sources. Bligh comes
off not as a martinet, no Captain Queeg, but probably someone who
lacked the command presence to keep a ships' crew in line after
leaving paradise - Tahiti. He prided himself on not having a fatality
on the cruise out, only held punishment details with flogging twice,
and generally tried to imitate his previous commander, the great
Captain Cook.
The motives of Fletcher Christian aren't well presented, perhaps there
just isn't enough evidence as to what he was thinking. At the court
martial various people opined on him, both the accused and witnesses,
and the best guess is stress on a high strung personality and the shock
of leaving his native lover at Tahiti. Peter Heywood comes off as
almost certainly complicit in the mutiny, despite which he was found
not guilty (he had numerous family connections in the navy and even on
the board of judges). The few who were found guilty (rightfully) were
hanged.
Tuesday 1 February
2011
Tuesday
-
Monday
31
January 2011
Monday
- Working away on this and that.
Sunday 30 January 2011
Sunday
- taking it easy, working on a few things.
Book #14 was Betrayer
of Worlds, by Larry Niven & Edward Lerner. This is set in Larry
Niven's Known Space universe, and is the fourth in a series:
It is well written, but, again a little forced plot wise, particularly towards the end. As I grow
older I get pickier, I guess. Lerner and Niven are a bit handicapped by
now having two sets of super beings, the Pak and the Gw'oth. I recall
someone (David Brin?) writing about the problems of creating characters
(not to mention entire races!) smarter than yourself. It's a bit like
writing about the Singularity, not easy to pull off.
In the evening I went with friends over to the LPAC for a performance
by the New Shanghai Circus. The circus acts are usually fun, but after
a while you've seen most of the different types of act. This show was
nice in that there were a couple of new acts, and some variations on
older ones that made them interesting. I say this was a plus, but the
choreography, if that's the word, was a little rough. I'd say that
athletically they were in the middle of the pack - not quite as quick
and smooth as the circus act we saw last year. Anyway, fun, and worth
the $26.00. My friends wife, who sews, thought the costumes a bit
rough. I didn't notice it myself though.l
Picture of
the Week
Photo
Notes: A Ship of the Air, a Ship of the Sea..
