Injuries 1 - A very sore elbow joint!
Time Spent 5 Hours
Stickiness Factor 8/10
With the social calendar clear, today promised to be a day of good progress, it also promised snow. Unfortunately only the latter proved correct. It started off ok with some more joint taping inside the buoyancy compartment at one end. I successfully cut out the whole for the hatch cover on the BH, although I wish I'd done that before the BH was installed. I was pleased to be able get much more filler into the crumple zone prior to taping and I'm pretty confident of surviving some hefty impacts but hat's as far as my good fortune went and from there on it all started to go Pete Tong.
A trip out to B&Q for some much needed supplies proved a welcome break from the epoxy fumes. Flying to B&Q is much more fun than driving. The main item on my shopping list was an 8mm drill bit. I was excited to be unscrewing BH number two, lining it up with BH number one and drilling the holes for the securing bolts. Once these are tight I'll really be able to see how good the seal is. Back from shopping and with a burst of enthusiasm I took half number two onto the drive and began sanding those fillets. It went well, much sanding was done, then it snowed! Not wanting to get my canoe wet (that would be just silly) it went back in the garage to join it's sister. The sanding would have to be finished another day. In case you're wondering, I have a self imposed ban on sanding in the garage now that the epoxy coating has begun, dust is not required!
Never mind, snow won't stop me, oh no, I'm made of sterner stuff than that. Time to remove the the BH and get those holes drilled. That's when it happened. Unscrewing the second last screw, a tear inducing ripping sound screamed from the port side (or starboard). The top most seam had split it's fillet along more than half it's length. Gutted! "Oh how unfortunate" my inner voice exclaimed, or words to nothing like that effect! Recovery mode kicked in and I quickly stuck in a couple of wire ties to keep it together and stop in spreading further. Ok, it can fixed but I could of done without the extra work.
Right, BH out, moving on. The BH's lined up as expected and I started drilling my first hole. There's nothing more satisfying than powering through solid wood with a brand new drill bit. Well there is but we can't talk about that here. I was feeling very smug. Normally I would have persevered with one of my trusty ten year old blunt drill bits but today...I had planned ahead. Like a hot knife through a soggy butter I powered my way past the halfway point. Then the drilling started to get harder, much harder, much much harder. Not deterred I pumped the drill to get past the tough bit using all the back pressure my elbow could muster. I had to stop, my elbow had completely given out and I had a horrible painful feeling of tendentious running deep in the joint. I don't actually know what tendentious is but it sounds right and it really hurts! Yeah I know, I can hear you, “man up...”. Then the horrid realisation struck... I had hit a screw that was securing the BH frame to the hull! Doh! And now my brand new shiny drill bit was as blunt as f....Oh dear, you know what? It's time to head indoors, tomorrow is another day!
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