Well, the first since we've owned the boat, and, to be precise, the
boat isn't yet SV Flying Pig, still having the name boards as well as
some of the gear of the prior name aboard, as well as, particularly,
not having been christened.

However, it was, in a way, christened today. In this area, afternoon
thunderstorms are common...

As usual, I'd been working up a storm in the 95* heat, bending tubing,
cutting tubing, measuring tubing, running up and down the ladder
umpteen times, in the course of doing the railings project. In
particular, I'd miscalculated and ordered 60* angle brackets for the
gate reinforcements, while the base was 45* on the original
configuration. That mean I had to, somehow, bend, a very short length
of tubing 15* - and I wasn't doing too well.

To shorten the story, I got that little problem resolved, but not
before it was so hot I had to go inside for a cool-down, for fear I
might topple off the boat (a painful and perhaps terminal experience
from 10+' off the hard). However, in about 15 minutes, I was hard at
it again. So, the thunderstorm at about 5 PM was a welcome shower.

However, it became more of a downpour than a shower, and while I
continued until I'd finished the forward port lower (the forward uppers
on both sides await Tees for the stanchions to be finished), I got
pretty thoroughly soaked. Not that I wasn't pretty wet already, having
long ago soaked through my shirt and 4" double layer terry sweatband I
made out of a dying towel about a year ago...

So, I went below, stripped off all the wet clothes, got a pair of
shorts out of the laundry and put them on just to avoid arrest, grabbed
the shampoo and had our boat's first deck shower! The water was
considerably cooler than my cold water showers (the water comes out of
the tap in the marina shower at about 90*), and so I was not only
clean, but very refreshed.

Other accomplishments today included hanging the reefer door
(finally!!!), using one of the lift-off type of hinges rather than the
lay-flat I'd originally selected in consideration of Lydia's shins.
Those proved problematic in that they don't like vertical
installations, wanting to knuckle in response to sideways pressure, so
they'd not yet been installed. Well, technically, they'd been
installed perhaps a dozen times - but never very satisfactorily...

However, on consideration of where they were, I realized that it was
essentially physically impossible for Lydia to contact them with the
front of her leg. So, we converted to the type you might normally see
on a companionway door set - a pin on the bottom and a cup on the top,
allowing stiff contact, but easy removal of the door once it's out of
the frame. Those are in, and do just what we want.

As well, the engine having had all the rotating parts with the
exception of the harmonic balancer removed from the exterior, was
pressure washed, in effect, with an air compressor-driven engine
cleaner tool removing all the remaining film layers (the gunk having
been scraped and wirebrushed via brake cleaner, before) as well as
sanding dust and the like.

Tomorrow the top rails, cleanout of the freezer (bottom covered in
construction debris and Pam spray-on drip-off [the better to make
defrosting less strenuous]) so I can final-mount the evaporator plate,
painting the engine, final trimout on the reefer door, various
electrical work, more hacking at the remains of the windlass, and
perhaps other stuff.

Best, though, is that Lydia arrives on the redeye late tomorrow night
(well, technically, Friday morning), and we'll hit it together for the
last week I have before we'll both drive home for my surgery on the
first.

There's no way we'll have the boat ready to go in the water by then -
but we'll have done a great deal more to make it ready!

Pictures didn't happen today due to the rain and my working hard enough
to make some errors, as well as forgetting to document what happened as
it went along. However, I'll try to get more up tomorrow, for those
following this adventure :{))

L8R

Skip, refitting as fast as I can
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 - The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain