Day 4 A cereal packet moment

Tea Count 1
Injuries 1 (when cutting off the wire ties they would ping around the garage, sorry – boat shed - like tiny missiles. It was only a matter of time before one hit me in the eye. Safety goggles on standby)
Time spent 2 hours

I only spent a couple of hours on the boat today. First off I was delighted to find the garage was still there and that the spontaneous combustion threatened by the epoxy tin had not occurred after all. Secondly, I was even more thrilled to see the epoxy had cured into brown concrete and my canoe first half was structurally sound. I spent a few minutes cutting off all the wire ties fully expecting at least one of the panels to spring back to it’s natural flat state. They didn’t and the wire tie hitting me in the eye at least woke me up nicely and so it was time for breakfast.

As it was dryish day I put both halves onto the drive balanced on some 4”x2”s to check how they would line up. This was brave. If they didn’t match up I had no idea what I was going to do. Amazing! They met almost perfectly and whilst it was tricky to balance them up to each other it was clear that the misalignment was minuscule and nothing that a sheet of sandpaper wouldn’t sort out. Buoyed with confidence I called Zena out to take a look, she was impressed and we stood on the drive for a moment taking in the view! Then, with rain threatening it was time to get them back inside and for her start with her cleaning up of my garage floor. I was fine. Carrying a canoe half whilst stamping on used un-melted mixing containers is a normal part of construction in my boat shed. But no, apparently the floor has to be clear of obstructions when carrying canoe halves – she left fairly shortly!

So what to do next? To fillet up the other half with epoxy I guess. I had done one half and was so confident in my mixing and spreading of crunchy peanut butter ability that I doubled my mixing quantities, scary huh? Yup, I ended up binning about a third of my mix as it went off too quickly! Whilst beginning the mix my thoughts turned to yesterday when I had the wild idea that a spoon would have been useful with which to dispense the filler powder. You know how it is, you tip the container and nothing comes out, you tip it some more, nothing comes out, you tip a tiny bit more and tap the container and it all comes out in one huge cascade of powder! Anyway, as with yesterday, it was too late to go anywhere near the kitchen for a spoon. My fingers were already sticky with resin and going anywhere within twenty feet of the kitchen with these hands would be tempting fate and probably death. Good forethought Leigh – good save!

It was whilst tempting the powder out of the tin using the above mentioned that the cereal packet moment announced itself. There, hidden near the bottom of the tin (I’ve used two thirds of the tin by this time) was something blue, bright blue, what the..? Fingers went in to retrieve a beautiful perfectly formed bright blue dispensing spoon. What a fantastically brilliant idea, putting a measuring spoon in with the filler powder…AT THE BOTTOM. I do have another one of these filler tins so I wonder what will be in there. A toy car perhaps, some football cards maybe. Knowing my luck, just as in the days of free toys with the sugar puffs, I’ll get another spoon.

So the gluing up process went without further incident. Richard and Gail dropped by to take a look and I think were suitable impressed with the boat, although Richard was more excited by my man garage. Gail told him that he already had a man garage and I sensed a domestic situation arising so I gave them what they had come for and they left to enjoy the footy.

Tomorrow is New Years Day so it’s probably safer not to plan any work on her as it could go horribly wrong. Let’s see how things go tonight. I’m sure I’ll end up taking out the remaining stitches, with my safety goggles on honest, but that will probably be that. Happy New Year everyone – note the assumption that somebody or in fact everyone is reading this blog!