April 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW

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

• Alex was busy with more boat projects as usual. It doesn't seem to end, does it? But he found some time to make me a surprise gift! 💗

• This month he attached a wooden strip onto the saloon roof, where he plans to attach the new bimini windscreen. The old screen was made of soft vinyl, but always had problems with the zips, or the snaps where it connected to the roof ... or the vinyl itself getting hard in the sun & becoming less & less transparent. The plan is to make the new windscreen out of clear 5mm acrylic (perspex) ... but this will be a challenge as the windscreen needs to be able to be opened & closed (depending on the weather), and its a curved screen - trickier to do with perspex than with vinyl ... lets see how it turns out?

• Also, we're finally getting the smooth section of our deck spray painted with gelcoat. You might've noticed in some of our photos where the gelcoat had worn off so badly that the fiberglass was exposed. Check out our 'Spray Painting Our Deck' post.

• Back in Asia, I surprised my mum with tickets to Seoul for her 68th birthday! ;) It was our second mother & daughter trip, and her first time in Korea. We had 4 wonderful days - 2 of which were warm and sunny, while the other 2 were cold and rainy. Check the blog later for a short post of our trip.

• On the 29th, I attended my first Rugby Sevens in Singapore! Thank you Ennie for the invite! :) The final game between Fiji & Australia was exhilarating. 21-22 (Fiji-Aus) with less than 0:34 secs remaining, it all happened so quickly, tackle here, tackle there, run, run, run.. Fiji scores a try and wins the game! Sensational! Nothing is impossible... Nothing is over until the final whistle. 👏

• On the entertainment front, I completed two korean tv series Goblin and Flower Boy Ramen Shop, while Alex watched The Gifted (Season 1), Star Trek Discovery (Season 1), Lost in Space (Season 1), Humans (Season 1-2) and Lore (Season 1).

Check out our posts this month:

Side Project: A Present For Me!

 

March 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW >>

May 2018 | MONTH IN REVIEW <<

>> Check it out! <<

Here's the wooden strip on the saloon roof

Getting spray painted

Changdeokgung Palace

Haha!

Final game between Fiji & Australia

Till next month. Thank you for reading! :)

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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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