We are in the Home Stretch

We arrived to find the new prop in place.  It seems monstrous but I'm told it is the same diameter as the original prop with just a slightly flatter angle on the blades. This is supposed to be good for creating strong low speed thrust and for STOPPING power, which is exactly what we need.  

I did bite off a bit more than I could chew this weekend, working on sealing up the decks. I only ordered three tubes of caulk, one for the port side deck, one for the starboard side deck, and one for the cockpit.  I spent probably six straight hours scraping out the old caulk with this thing:

And then I cleaned up as best I could, taped it off in arm length sections and worked on it until the sun went down. It was a stupid mistake. I should have realized how long it was going to take -- 8 hours of crouching on the side deck in the heat and the cold was too much.  I went through two of my three tubes and so the other side deck isn't getting done.  I couldn't face the job on Sunday so I didn't continue it, but the cockpit is by far the worst in terms of just flat out NOT HAVING any caulk anymore so that's something I can break down into small sections and work on as I feel like it.

We also finally finished the coaming boxes.  They originally were not canted enough inboard so they held about a half inch of water all the time no matter what.  We built up the floors and enlarged the drain holes, smoothed it out, primed it with brightsides primer and then painted it with the leftover tan paint from the Dalloway's boot stripe.  It didn't mix up quite right, I am not sure how long the paint will last but it looks good now.

The new bilge pump is more or less installed, the ceiling in the vee berth and the head are installed -- replaced the rotten rancid lauan with pvc beadboard as in the saloon.  Which means the lights went back in.

I might or might not have crosswired the drain pump for the shower. I did successfully get it to pump air into the shower pan, so that was interesting.  It might be fixed now, we aren't sure, since the batteries were totally dead and the charger didn't seem to be working.

It's fair to say we aren't sure the bilge pump works either but I've got my fingers crossed since she's going in the water today.

The manual bilge pump hose . .  well, We got it off the bilge pump and tried to draw it out through the main bilge access but it was strapped nice and tight to the brand new pretty engine hoses so we gave up for fear of undoing the mechanic's work.  Sunday seemed to be a day with a lot of setbacks. Seems like every weekend as those anymore.

Anyway, sea trial is scheduled for Thursday!

Oh and we added King Starboard feet to the old teak grates since the plywood feet had rotted off.  I put some teak oil on them while they were out and immediately regret it. They're so dark now I feel they will be very hot in the sun, but hopefully that means they will fade to gray again quickly. 

Found a fun restaurant in town where you can eat on an old floating dock. It has an engine and a steering wheel as if it used to be motored about -- the waitress assured us it hasn't moved in about five years though.