When there’s a lot on your plate to do, time just seems to wiz right by and this month both David and I can say that the last couple months have flown by with the speed of lightning. We were both busy during the summer and then in September, Schooner Chandlery exhibited at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. It was a fun event and we enjoyed having John Fruehwirth do demos of wood carving at the booth during the event.

Following the Festival, David had a software project in Colorado to attend to for a bit. He brought back a doozie of a Colorado cold and after nursing it for a week, passed it on to me to let it linger in the boat longer. We both finally felt un-sick and capable on Saturday the 14th of October, a full month after the Festival.

Earlier in the week, I was feeling guilty for letting Mahdee get so dirty without a good washdown so I scrubbed a month’s grime off Mahdee’s topsides. I’m happy to say her varnish is still glossy and bright from last fall’s varnish-fest. The covering boards and bulwarks look so perfect so that only I would know that it’s been a year. Running out of time, this may be the first year that since 2009 that I do not complete a full varnish round-robin on Mahdee. I have to do the butterfly hatches as they won’t make it through the winter without another few coats — and the canvas covering their piano hinges needs to be replaced or we’ll have drips of water in the main saloon during the winter rains. I put on the canvas hinge covering–at the suggestion of Chris Frost of Downwind Marine–in 2009 so I’m pretty happy that it’s made it through 8 years without real leaks. However, the edge of one bit of canvas hinge cover is getting frayed and we noticed during spring 2017 saturating rains it would eventually leak below onto the main saloon table.

Mahdee’s charthouse exterior has not been re-painted or weatherproofed since 2010 and it’s showing cracks in the paint along all the structures like the corner posts and whatnot. A few bungs have cracks in the paint showing and one has a nasty red rust stain as a reminder that, while we did replace all the iron fasteners in the hull and deck, we didn’t replace all the iron fasteners in the charthouse. I put together a little pile of scrapers and sanding papers for my assault on the butterfly hatches and charthouse this week. Tomorrow I’ll be out and about most of the day but mid-week begins my “mini” paint and varnish-fest to include aforementioned hatches and charthouse as well as the cockpit bench seats and combing interior that have flaky paint. Midwinter flaking paint is never a good thing and usually, I sand and re-do the cockpit seats every year. Last year I didn’t do it and it’s very easy to see that.

The charthouse roof canvas and the canvas in the cockpit surround are also looking worn and in need of repair or replacement. Since the real water proofing is done with the metacrylic membrane under the canvas I know I can put off the repair/replace until next spring. I may just remove the canvas this week and go with the naked metacrylic through the winter. It’s gray color isn’t as nice as the straw color of the painted canvas but I’d probably be happier to be rid of canvas with little rips and flaking paint. Another project for the list.

The Mahdee tasks that have been delayed by life intervening are now slowly getting put onto a list and much more slowly ticked off the list. This weekend’s Mahdee “togetherness” highlight for David and I was changing the oil bypass filter and replacing the raw water impeller on the Cummins while also flushing out the raw water and coolant systems. Finding the pencil zinc largely intact in the heat exchanger was sort of a bonus. Usually, it’s a pile of mush that has to be cleaned out of the exchanger. The low-lite of the experience for me was breaking one of the three corroded stainless bolts that hold the Sherwood impeller housing onto the engine while I was removing it. Usually, David does the honors of breaking bolts and I can make fun of him for it. This time, I was the culprit. The low-lite for David was tearing up his hands while contorted into the required spot and turning the wrench to get the impeller housing back together. What should have taken us two hours turned into a whole weekend. Break a bolt, 5 minutes. Replace it only after driving to a store and finding a replacement, 2 hours.

Somehow we were both pretty exhausted at the end of our mini-maintenance weekend and wondered what had come of our energetic and nimble bodies we’ve spent a lifetime abusing. Had bodysnatchers invaded and given us these low performing versions in return for our old selves? Happy with the Cummins basics completed, we chose to just enjoy a Sunday evening petting Beryl and watching a movie on the computer, stuffing the spectre of the body snatchers into the recesses of our minds.