Judy P's Tickle Trunk

…or two steps forward, one step back.

Might have known it was day 13. Today was fraught with errors and tomorrow I will be kept busy backtracking. But we learn by our mistakes. Actually, some weren’t mistakes, just ignorance. And I beg to differ, ignorance is not bliss. I shall itemize.

1.  The manual says that the plywood is sensitive to sunlight and may discolour if exposed so I have been very careful to close the tent doors once the sun comes around to shine on the stern of the boat in the late afternoon. These pieces were sitting in a pile on the workbench where I thought they were protected. Forgot about the tent windows!. Sheesh, they weren’t kidding.

Had I known the sun would have this effect I would have cut stencils and made pretty little patterns all over!

2. I was applying epoxy coat number two on the interior when I noticed that in the spaces where I have to add doublers for the “knees” I filled the seams with “fillets” (which are essentially big jeezly gobs of smoothed out epoxy). It is hard as the hobs of hell. But it will have to be removed before the knees go in. So tomorrow I will go at it with a hairdryer and a scraper. If that doesn’t work I will up the ante and go at it with a heat gun. If that doesn’t work I will have to hone my whittling skills. Or throw away the wooden knees and donate my own which are about as bumpy and knobby as the fillets.

3. I was mixing my third or fourth batch of epoxy when I realized that it was cloudy and then realized that for the last couple of mixes the resin had been cloudy. Why did I not notice this before? It seemed to go on clear as did the previous batches but now I am worried. After some reading I find that my resin has crystalized and shouldn’t be used like that. It is easy to melt in hot water or the hot sun but I spread a fair bit on assorted bits of the boat that now won’t likely dry. Sigh. Why oh why? Why did I not notice earlier. Why did I go ahead even when I had doubts. I believe this comes of working when one is tired.  Heaven forbid if I have to spend tomorrow trying to scrape off a ton of sticky epoxy. What kind of crazy mood will I be in then. Poor Lance. This may be more than a step backward, more like a leap.

4. I didn’t trim the little stray end of fibreglass cloth before it set up. When I was shutting down last night I saw a thread, recently epoxied, sticking out from under the shear clamp and thought I’ll just trim that off tomorrow when I get back at it. Well, it went from being a little bendy thread to being a needle sharp enough to do microsurgery. I swear it was almost through to the other side of my finger before I could pull away. Sharp, my dears, it was as sharp as a mother-in-law’s tongue.

So there you are. I’m not ashamed of my mistakes, I am a novice, but am disgusted all the same. I know I will wake up in the middle of the night and be tempted to go out and check to see if the epoxy has hardened. I will resist the temptation and try and get back to a sleep where I am not dreaming about fibreglass, which reminds me, I also cut a piece the wrong size today. Guess that was mistake number five. Sigh. I wonder who the patron saint of boatbuilders and boatbuildresses is.

© Judy Parsons 2014