August 8, 2010.

I believe that we’re officially half outta here. Our 5 month stay in Annapolis is just more than half gone. That said, Damn, I gotta get busy….like we’re not busy already.

The windlass does in fact work once again. So we can scratch one chore off the to-do list. After test driving it, it looks like we’ll be selling our current dink and buying Grants used one. Of course, this means that we’ll have to make a new set of dinghy chaps to protect the new one from the sun. Add another chore to the to-do list, crap.

On Saturday Christy & I worked on the bimini and dodger. She applied a final coat of fairing compound to the dodgers exterior while I fiberglassed the bottom of the inverted bimini.
After that there was just enough time for some food shopping before we headed home for the evening.

Today while Christy went and did a combo pool/ laundry day, I headed back over to the shop to flip the dodger upright and finish up the top. The 2 X 8’s that I used to form the bimini’s radius are now on top of the bimini. I followed the radius of the bimini and cut them away leaving only an inch and a half wide by one inch tall stringer. These stringers serve the dual purpose of helping to maintain the bimini’s shape and once the bimini is installed on the boat they will become the mounting location for our solar panels. On my first attempt I tried to do the cutting with a cordless circular saw. I’ve never used one before but I thought I’d give the Ryobi Gelding battery operated saw a shot. My patience with that plastic piece of shit lasted for about three minutes. The thing ran like a champ until you actually came in to contact with the wood. Talk about no balls. After they were cut to shape with a real circular saw I went about the business of adding a layer of fiberglass to the whole enchilada.

Of course there had to be just a little bit o’ drama. Theres a colony of small winged insects with stingers living in an underground hive right near my work surface. We’ve been peacefully coexisting until one of the little bastards decided to sting me right between the shoulder blades.

My first thought was “Oh no, Dullard showed up and he’s got an icepick”. Then I realized it was only one of the bees……and now he’s dead. I’m not sure what it was but something got them all pretty worked up. I grabbed a can of Wasp spray and sent a torrent of the lethal liquid down into their underground lair. After administering about 47 times the recommended dosage I once again found myself king of the foodchain.