Paint, paint, paint

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Painting of the freshly sandblasted steel has been a process.  John and his assistant Maxwell would sandblast during the day.  This involved tons of black grit that covered the area in a film of black.  We hired a compressor and a sandblaster, and there were many trips to go buy more grit and more diesel.  At the end of each sandblast day, John and I would paint the clean steel with the first coat of epoxy paint, painting into the night with classic rock music playing and a glass of red wine.  Steel completely sandblasted and first coat of paint took 2 weeks.  Then additional coats of paint alternating white and grey, aiming for 6-8 coats of paint.

While Maxwell continues to paint, John starts with the woodwork, because he can't help himself!  The deck beams are laminated into curves from American White Ash, each piece custom fit and bolted down with stainless steel bolts.  These bolts were bought in the UK and we brought it back in our luggage on our last trip.  Glue also came over in our luggage, with nephew Paul bringing more glue for us on his trip.  We need more stuff from the UK....

In October we went back to Cape Town to continue with our sailing course and visit the Cape Town Boat Show.  The boat show was disappointing, unless you wanted to buy a luxury catamaran.

We had a few good days sailing with Ralph, including a morning out with 30 knot winds.  John's Day Skipper license requires 200 nm out at sea, a radio license, an eye test, and a written exam.  The 200 nm is going to be a process, but the rest has been done, awaiting results of the exam.  Paperwork submitted to a dysfunctional SAMSA.






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