Rainy day progress

The 70% chance of rain materialized as a day of incessant drizzle.   The drizzle worked in my favor as it kept temps cooler yet allowed me to leave C'est la Vie's leeward ports open.  An autumn like breeze ventilated the cabin.  Under these conditions and I applied the final coat of paint to the head lockers and began build up the mast step with fiberglass.

The fresh paint in the lockers now highlights the need to refinish the wood trim and replace the dingy lid on the head.  I'm unsure if time will allow us to complete either of these tasks before we need to began our trip back to Florida.

While the paint dried in the head, I changed venues and begin to build up the old mast step.  The compression post we plan to add below decks will require a level surface on which to mount.  The current step slopes aft.  We will use sections of mat left over from the cloth cut for creating the new mast step on deck to build up the old, interior mast step.  Initially I laid out the dry mat on the step to figure out the best pattern for the cloth.  I then numbered the sections as they were removed from the step.  Before applying the new cloth, I used thickened epoxy and a syringe to fill old bolt holes and irregularities in the step.

Applying the 12 pieces of fiberglass mat went smoothly, but I was a bit disappointed by how little this work did to reduce the slope on the step.  I will definitely be adding more cloth once this application cures.  By tomorrow I will be able to set a level on the area to get an accurate assessment of how much remains.

Note the fresh coats of paint along the walls of the mast channel in the image above.  This area was painted in conjunction with the head lockers.

The rain is forecast to end by tomorrow morning with cooler temps remaining in the area.  Hopefully tomorrow, Anne and I can team up to begin fabricating the new mast step on deck.