Demolition continues, the main cabin is bare…

all but for the overhead panels on the side decks and the cabin roof. All the Styrofoam is out, I still have to rip out the batten  strips.  The range of inconsistencies continues, nails, bolts, 6 varieties of screws. Each individual bay between frames and stringers may be painted/unpainted, have lots of roofing cement or very little. Some panels are stuck down with roofing cement, others are not. I suspect that once the battens are off, I’ll be working each individual bay with rags and lacquer thinner to get the roofing cement off. The rust is light to moderate once you get above the lower chine, but again, no consistency.  Anyway, I’m working at gutting the entire boat now, and once done will bring in a contractor to sandblast inside and out.

I was working Wednesday and Thursday, for about 6-8 hours in the cabin, and after the interior furniture was out, i had to shut down the AC because the exhaust hose wasn’t long enough. Two days of  this and I ended up with dehydration. Not fun. I ended up with a wicked cramp to the right thigh on Thursday night, which lasted about 20m. Talk about agony. You don’t want to do this to yourself.

Keep yourself hydrated with electrolyte drinks. The initial symptoms of dehydration are very subtle. Anyway the AC is now sitting on a work mate, and clamped down so it won’t move. The cooler is filled each day with ice and drinks. I’ve read that under the proper conditions you can lose from 0.4 liters to 1.6 liters an hour from sweating. Add in the normal 0.2 to 0.35 liters lost just by breathing and you see the problem.  Keep an eye on how often you urinate. If the urine is light colored and you hit the can frequently, you should be OK. If it’s dark and its been more than a few hours you have a problem and drinking water won’t help. You need electrolytes fast. There are lots of recipes for homemade drinks on line, and stay away from the factory made junk, way too high in sugars

Have a look at this, it will give you a general idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehydration

Friday ended up a bust. The truck is starting to have problems again, the alternator appears to be getting ready to pack it in, so I called the shop, and had them order a rebuilt for me. I’ll be getting it put in on Tuesday and then back at it. The property manager wants to look around the boat to make sure I’m doing the environmentally proper thing and that there are no other boats that will be affected if I do the sandblasting so I’ll get with him next week too. I figure at least one more week to complete the gutting, perhaps two. So it looks like I won’t be able to blast until July. At this rate I’m seriously thinking about canceling the dock and saving the money for a launch. By the time I’m ready, it will be late July, and the weather for sailing gets into the doldrums. Being a heavy pig, I don’t see much future in just sitting at the dock. It adds a whole new level of aggravation to the rebuild, having to cart material a 1/4 mile to the boat and not having 220v right there for any welding.

The air conditioners’ new home.

Starting to tear apart the main bulkhead.

More next week. TTFN