Side Project: A Present For Me!

Sometime in April, I received a text.

A surprise he said, that left me perplexed.

Oh my, oh my, a present for me!

Can you guess, what it could be?

It folds and holds, and never grows old.

But if you leave it alone, it may grow mold.

How lovely it is, and made of teak.

So strong and sturdy, it is not weak.

Useful indoors and outdoors as well.

Can you believe, my name it does spell!

Rain or shine, it will never feel blue.

What could this be, do you have a clue?

Yup! You guessed it! It's a foldable stool!
 
Thank you so much for making this surprise gift for me! 💗 ;)

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March 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW

Here's a quick summary of what we were up to this month.

• 3 years ago, on March 2nd, Raptor was hauled out in Power Boats, a boatyard in Trinidad of Trinidad & Tobago. She's been sitting at that very same spot since then. Click here to see us on google maps!

• Of course a lot has happened in the last 1,095 days (read our past posts); loads of boat projects (repairs/maintenance/upgrades) completed and some still underway. 

• The light at the end of the tunnel does seem a little closer and maybe even slightly brighter, but of course we were very hopeful to get her ship-shape several Caribbean seasons ago..

• Our blog has, as a result, been more about boat repairs than travel. Guess it's all part of our journey.. How many more months to go?

• Well, at least four more till my contract ends in August, and there's no chance of launching before that! Unless Alex finishes all the boat projects and finds some friendly neighbours in the boatyard or crew to launch? :)

• This month, Alex worked on the step at the front deck. It turned out to be the cause of a mysterious leak in the port cabins. He removed it and re-enforced it with wooden ribs and fiberglass and properly re-sealed the edges. Let's hope there'll be no more leaks.

• He also attended Donald Stollmeyer's farewell dinner. After 37 years of being the Managing Director at Power Boats, Don is finally going to set off on his own sailing adventure (later this year we're told). Very happy for him. Read his story here.

• On the entertainment front, I continued my k-drama fever with Emergency Couple and Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, while Alex watched 6 seasons of X-Files (Season 6-11)!

February 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW >>

April 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW <<

Before

Step removed by carefully cutting around the edge with an oscillating cutter (which operates a little like hair clippers, but with just 1 vibrating blade)

Added ribs to re-enforce the step

The sides properly sealed with more foam & epoxy, and several layers of fiberglass on the wood at the back also

The old & fragile step - not 100% sure, but suspect the water was leaking right through the step itself, via cracks in the gelcoat (the whole step flexed a lot when it was stepped on)

Re-enforced with plywood & a layer of fiberglass on either side of it

The new and very strong step ... the rib was added after laminating on the plywood to help keep its shape, as we found the step's wall was a little bowed inwards at the centre of the step - possibly due to the laminating he did, or just because it had bowed when it was thin & fragile &  adding fiberglass just fixed it in that bowed position. Either way, the rib helped to force-straighten it back up.

Re-sealed the step with epoxy bog & another 2 layers of fiberglass all around

Held down with lots of C-clamps till it set ... Alex was hoping its weight alone would hold it down, but he was wrong!

Close up of the C-clamps over long strips of wood both top & bottom

All sanded and ready to be painted

Thank you for reading! :-)

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February 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW

Here's a quick summary of what we were up to this month.

• I'm still playing catch up with our posts! {two months behind} 😀. It's kinda hard to write a blog with a full time job. The last thing I feel like doing at the end of the day is.. sit in front of the computer again. So I try to work on it on weekends but it's funny how weekends fly by so quickly.. four weekends go by and {poof} it's a(nother) month!

• Chinese New Year fell on the 16th, just 2 days after Valentine's day! We bid farewell to the year of the Rooster 🐔, and welcomed the year of the Dog 🐶!

• Grateful to be home this year. One of the things I enjoy most about Chinese New Year other than the family getting together, is the cooking and eating of Chai, a vegetarian dish made with napa/chinese cabbage, beancurd, ginko nuts, black fungus, different types of mushrooms, etc. We make this every year! My grandma's recipe is the BEST! It's really delicious and very healthy too! 

• On the other side of the world, Alex has been busy with more boat projects.  

• He re-sealed the hatches in the saloon, sanded and grinded more of the bow, repaired the section where the trampoline meets the deck and worked on the hawse pipe. Scroll down to see photos below.

• On the entertainment front, while Alex was watching The X-Files (Season 1-5), I was busy watching 3rd Rock from the Sun (Season 4-6), The Heirs (Korean TV series) and Doctors (another Korean TV series). I figured, now that I'm back in Asia, I might as well jump onto the Korean drama bandwagon! 😄 

Check out our posts this month:

Re-sealing the Saloon Hatches

January 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW >>

March 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW <<

Re-sealed the hatches in the saloon

After sanding the 2 access holes, Alex applied epoxy bog - read our January post

Sanded, grinded and repaired the section where the trampoline meets the deck

Repairs on the hawse pipe

Mum's famous mouth-watering crispy crackling pork belly

Yee Sang/Yusheng - only available during Chinese New Year, another favourite of mine

And of course here are the ingredients for the Chai dish I love 😋

Till next month. Thank you for reading!

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Re-sealing the Saloon Hatches

Here are some photos when Alex re-sealed the hatches in the saloon. 

The hatch removed (view from inside)

The hatch removed (view from outside)

Balsa core

About a centimeter of balse core removed all around

Plastic container taped to the ceiling to catch the balsa core

Sanded and filled the cavity with epoxy bog - to prevent water from leaking into the balsa core
He also epoxied a 3mm PVC board so that the hatch is raised and thus less likely for water to seep in

A close up of epoxy bog fill & PVC board

All sanded and ready for sikaflex

Old sikaflex cleaned from the hatch

The hatch is sikaflexed in

All done!

Note: Alex re-sealed the hatch on the port side in February and the one on the starboard side in May! Bit by bit.. we'll get there! 😎

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January 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW

Here's a quick summary on what we were up to this month.

• Happy New Year! Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed and wonderful 2018! 🎉 {in reality this post is a couple of months late}

• It's been a busy month for us. While I have been busy juggling between my new job and sorting out some personal stuff; Alex has been busy working on the long list of boat projects and has made a lot more progress than he did last month! {yay}

• He finally replaced the cracked mixing elbow on the engine. Unfortunately, the one we got from US was not the right one, even though we checked with the salesperson prior to purchasing it. Nothing new, as a result, we purchased a couple of new hoses because the inlet on the mixing elbow did not align to the outlet on the heat exchange. Things we do to make it work. 

• Several months ago, after we re-bedded the shroud chain plates & re-attached the shrouds, we noticed, as we were tightening the shrouds, that the middle port shroud would not tension whatsoever above the spreader. For some reason, it seemed to have slipped up through the spreader clamp on the end of the spreader when we loosened the shrouds, but then got jammed & refused to slip back into place. Check out our 'Spreader Maintenance' post to see more photos!  

• Last September, Alex started the Fuel Tank Project. The one where we had to remove an entire wall in the main port cabin to gain access to it and added an inspection port to clean the sludge out. The project was put on hold for a while as he needed parts for his fuel polishing system which he finally picked up in the US last December. Take a look at some of the connectors below. Apparently it's not as easy as it looks!

• He also sanded the bow, where we made two access holes to get access to the forestay chain plate area we had to repair & reinforce in Richard's Bay, South Africa 5 years ago. The access holes were sealed up of course, but left visible... just in case we had to open them up & revisit the repair done on the wood supporting the chain plate. Many years later, the repair still looks very strong 🙏, so he finally decided it was time to seal the whole area permanently. More updates on this later.

• It's good to see the progress on Raptor. Although still far from being ready to launch.

• As for me, getting back into the the rat race after two years is rather challenging. I am trying my very best to keep my head above the water and doing my best to stay positive. If you see me frown, turn me upside down! 😆 

• Oh, and on 23rd January, after almost 3 years on the hard in PowerBoats, we had all the stands for the boat replaced (in 2 hours). The blocks of wood we were on had too much moisture (beginning to rot a little) and had lots of ants. So we got them replaced to be safe! Scroll down below to see our new stands.

Check out our posts this month:

Spreader Maintenance 

 

December 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW >>

February 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW << 

A much longer hose needed as the inlet on the mixing elbow did not align to the outlet on the heat exchanger

Yikes

2 ladders attached

The cause of many sleepless nights

Sanded - the two access holes we made in Richard's Bay, South Africa

Raptor is raised by the trailer to replace the stands

Our new stands!

Thanks for reading. Till next month!

Photo credits: Alex

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