Another Project Crossed Off the List

Last Wednesday, we got news that not all of our engine parts had arrived in the original shipment and the repair could not continue until delivery of a second shipment. I was immediately bummed and disheartened and fled to Papeete to watch Heiva and stay on some friends' boat. Jon took the news in stride and set about working on a project for which we had decided to do ourselves and not pay the outrageous labor charges.

On Thursday and Friday Jon sanded down and prepped Grace's hawse hole (where the anchor chain exits the boat) so that it could be reinforced. When we were raising our anchor in the Tuamotus, we noticed that the hull joint for the hawse hole was flexing. Jon had to remove the stainless steel frame and sand down to the fiberglass.

While in Papeete, I picked up 3 meters of two-directional carbon fiber fabric (twice as strong and half as heavy as fiberglass). Having been here now for 6 weeks, I have my connections! So on Saturday, we "borrowed" a work bench from the Marina and Jon set about applying 8 layers of ever expanding sheets of carbon fiber with expoxy glue.

The reinforcement looks great and we'll see how she holds. It must now be repainted, but we're crossing this project off the list.