S/V Mandolin working in the boat yard

Day 21:

Todd: Today was a good day. Ellen cooked us spanish frittata's for
breakfast then we figured out a better way to remove the amine blush from
cured epoxy using a scotch brite pad and soap. The rest of the day was
spent filling the 15 deepest blister first with layers of fiberglass then
after that had partially cured a smooth layer of collodial silica as a
fairing compound. Most of the rest of the blisters will only need to be
filled with the colloidial silica fairing compound after they are sanded
out.

Had a good chat with Rudolfo about what work we want done on the boat and
how it is to be done. We will meet with him and Eduardo who can translate
for us and Lalo the main worker on our boat. Hopefully this will get us
all on the same page about what we want to have happen from here on out.

Day 22:

Todd: We got up early for a shower and pancakes before our meeting with
Eduardo and Rudolpho. The meeting appeared to go well, Eduardo is going
to translate the steps that we want done on Mandolin into Spanish for the
workers to refer to. Ellen got a ride into town with Cutter Jones to
purchase brushes and some groceries for the dinner we are cooking tonight
for the nice folks on Nimbus that are letting us borrow their sanders and
have driven Ellen to the store. I spent the whole morning sanding the
blisters after they had been epoxied so the next coat will get a good
mechanical bond. Ellen sanded while I was taking a nap this afternoon,
then we both sanded into the evening. Finally, we finished all the
blisters on one side of the boat. Lalo came over and helped sand for
about 20 minutes at the end of the day. They really like using power
tools and really hate using hand tools. We joke about attaching an
electrical cord to a piece of sand paper to get the workers interested.
All my muscles are sore from my neck to fingers to thighs. I bet sleep
will come easy tonight.

Day 23:

Ellen: Todd and I took the 8 a.m. shuttle into La Paz this morning to buy
yet more supplies, buy some groceries and check email. Todd came with me
since he was so sore and tired from sanding all day yesterday he needed a
break today.

After we got back, Lalo started sanding blisters with a power sander.
It's effective for an initial swipe, but they will still need some
handsanding. It's very frustrating to have all this extra work and time.
If we had filled blisters the way Todd and I initially wanted, they would
probably be filled by now. Yesterday and today, every time I saw Lalo, I
became angry. This was making Todd upset and Lalo was unaware that I was
angry over wasted time, so I've decided to be done with my anger and just
work toward getting the job done. Lalo gave us the cold shoulder all day
today, so we figure that Eduardo and Rudolfo must have conveyed our
concerns and desires to him. It's too bad he's decided to be so offended
by us going over his head to get the job done right. We don't like making
someone upset, but our home being repaired properly is more important than
hurt feelings.

After Lalo went home, Todd and I continued repairing a few more deep
blisters with fiberglass. For dinner, I cooked up some wonderful tuna I
bought at the market for $2US/pound. Yum. Tea and cookies finished off a
somewhat stressful day.

Day 24:

Todd: Ellen went into town this morning to pick up our drill that was
being repaired, to return a tool that didn't work out and get some bread
at the French bakery stand for Stephanie on Cutter Jones who is not
feeling well. Lalo sanded with the power sander all day. I hand sanded
which seemed more effective, but not as fun. Ramiro and Jesus joined in
on the fun this afternoon. Even Rudolpho the new yard manager picked up a
piece of sand paper for a few minutes. We couldn't have all the fun.
Hopefully the sanding will finish tomorrow and we can start filling
blisters only three days later than we should have done.

Day 25:

Ellen: The workers finished sanding today. I was happily surprised in
that it looked good. Very good. Happy day.

We worked more on the front of the keel. One of the previous owners must
have hit a rock or something. There was a decent size piece of the front
bottom of the keel that was only some kind of paste filler. Todd and I
have been filling it with epoxy and fiberglass little by little each
evening after the workers have gone home. Tonight, it was finally full of
enough fiberglass and it was time to cover it with epoxy paste (epoxy
thickened with colloidial silica).

Our good day unfortunately ended in near disaster. We ran out of propane
as I was about to make rice for dinner. Luckily, we still had some left
over pasta. And, hey, the water is hot; I can make tea. All was not
lost. I made tea, but forgot that I had already salted the water for
rice. Yuck, salty tea! Yech!

Day 26:

Ellen: Today was the big day. We finally filled blisters. Lots of
blisters. We filled so many blisters, I'm almost too tired to type.

Todd and I both agonized over another epoxy day with the yard workers.
The last one we had resulted in unnecessary work and bad feelings. We
prayed for things to go better (i.e. our way :). God must have been
listening because the day couldn't have gone better. If I have more
energy tomorrow (ha!), maybe I'll include details. Or maybe it's enough
to say that we are definitely more that halfway through filling blisters
and will hopefully be done tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed!

Day 27:

Todd: Today is only a half day for the workers so we got started as soon
as they arrived. I got out the epoxy, filler, mixing buckets etc. that we
would need for the job. Jesus wetted out the blisters with resin while
Lalo and I filled the blisters with thickened epoxy. At 11:00 they had to
put a boat in the water so Ellen and I had some lunch and a nap before
finishing the whole rest of the side. Now all the blisters on the boat
are filled. This is a major milestone for us. Ellen and I are now
talking about taking a break by visiting our friend Tim in Cabo while the
workers sand down the excess filler and fair the boat. Perhaps we will be
able to do that tomorrow or the next day. Lessons learned from filling
blisters: Use West Systems epoxy thickened only with Collodial silica
406. After mixing completely in the mixing bucked work it back and forth
on a board with a sqeegy to get a uniform consistency before applying to
the bottom. The thickened epoxy shrinks slightly as it dries so leave it
bulged out a little when you apply it. It is good to have one person
mixing epoxy while two or three others are filling. A 1/3 cup measure
spoon is very useful since this is the amount of collodial silica that is
required per pump of epoxy for the gallon size 105 West System. We would
typically mix 3-4 pumps of epoxy then add 1/3 cup of 406 until we had 3-4
1/3 cups mixed in. This would give us the proper peanut butter
consistancy. Also this work may not sound like it, but it is really
tiring. We have helped for 1.5 days and worked alone for half a day and
are wiped out. Tomorrow we sleep in.

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