S/Y RAPTOR: August 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW

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

It's been 337 days, and we are still here in Trinidad {yikes!}. Other than the 6 day break/visa run in Florida last June and a day off every week or fortnight to do our grocery shopping, we've been working on the boat everyday. Some days more than others, but work nonetheless.

It's been hard trying keep our spirits up when you think you have this <----> much to do, but somehow, along the way the list just keeps getting <---------------> longer & longer. And so, what can we do but to suck it up and soldier on..

On the bright side, we finally re-bedded all the cleats on deck with backing plates which will make them a lot stronger than the small washers we had before.

We removed and cleaned the stanchions on the port side as well as the aluminium rail (2 pcs) that covers the joint where the deck and the hull meet. We managed to re-bed one of the two rails with silicone and rivets. However, when we did the second rail (the longer piece), we ran out of silicone and had to scramble and muck around with a leftover sikaflex tube. By the time we were ready to place the rail on, the silicone had set {oh the heartache & frustration}. What a waste of time and materials -- now we have to clean off the dried silicone from the rail and start again.

We finally removed the jib sail track, cut out strips on our deck, dug out the rotted wood and drying it out as much as we can (on sunny days) before we fill it with foam and fiberglass, making it slightly raised from the deck before re-bedding the sail track again. Will look into adding a backing plate as well.

Alex repaired the crack in the starboard forward bulkhead and reinforced the floorboard (with fiberglass and PVC foam board on top for a smooth finish); he also replaced the entire floorboard (with fiberglass laminated plywood & PVC foam board on top) on the port side as well (which we discovered was too rotted to reinforce). When you're a catamaran, you have two of everything. Sure, double the space and comfort but also double the cost and repairs!

We attended a customers appreciation dinner on 10th August at Le Moderne Restaurant (French/Indian cuisine) in Port of Spain, courtesy of Don/Power Boats. It was a lovely evening meeting and chatting with other yachties hauled out here (there were about 25 of us there that night), a good reason to clean up and dress up. Thank you so much Don & Power Boats for making our stay more pleasant and we don't just mean the dinner. :)

Ah, we missed the solar eclipse on 21st August. All of north America had a real treat. A first total solar eclipse of the sun visible from coast to coast across the US in 99 years. We were slightly too far south to see it, but still close enough to feel part of this amazing occurrence.

Happy 55th Independence Day Trinidad & Tobago and 60th for Malaysia! What a surprise to find these two share the same Independence Day on 31st August -- my 1st & {umm} 3rd home?

I recently joined 'Women Who Sail' group on Facebook -- it's a very inspiring, supportive and encouraging group (of women who sail), where we can openly and safely share our thoughts, feelings, hopes & dreams, achievements, questions as well as frustrations. Lots of support and great advice. It's strictly for women only! {so we can moan freely about the men! just kidding :-)}

We made new friends, Tony and Gunilla a lovely couple who sailed from Australia (also from Melbourne) on S/Y Katarina.

This month, we watched 'Into The Badlands' Season 1 & 2 which we really enjoyed, then Alex finally got me to watch 'Vikings' Season 1 to 4 {turns out to be quite good, it's set before 'The Last Kingdom' which we also liked}, after that we watched a couple of comic book series 'The Defenders' Season 1 and 'Daredevil' Season 1 & 2. Lastly, the final Season 5 of 'Orphan Black'. Sounds like a lot of TV doesn't it? That's how we forget about our troubles of the day every night..

Check out our posts this month:

Strip, Service & Repaint Our Yanmar Diesel Engine

TOP 11 Favourite Phone Apps

July 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW >>

September 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW <<

Re-bedding the first aluminium rail on the port side with silicone and rivets

Jib Sail Track project - Built a temporary "dam" with wood and plastic sheets to keep the water away. As you can see the balsa wood (deck core) is rotted.

Alex made his own whatchamacallit on the top left to efficiently and evenly remove (about 20mm of) the balsa core - quite clever wouldn't you say?

Top left: Rotted floorboard
Making a new floorboard for the port side forward bulkhead -- plywood layered with fiberglass on both sides and topped with a PVC board. The floorboard was made in 2 pieces, the triangle is the "top" part