Lots to report

Have accomplished a lot since the last post. She went in without incident.

1) Stripped all exterior teak. Used straight blade scraper to remove most of the old cetol. Also used orange citrus chemical stripper on the bow sprit. Sanded it down, chemically cleaned and brightened. Then applied 3 coats of Armada. 2 coats of satin and one coat of gloss (on the recommendation of Kevin at Salks).

2) Replaced Head. Had planned on rebuilding old head - Once I took it out and started to dis-assemble it became aparent that it wasn't going to work. Bronze pieces started falling apart. I replaced it with a new Groco head. It's OK - not great. Had one problem with it - there's a seam where the halves of the pump assembly come together - the seam runs right thru the gasket area and was causing a leak. I had to disassemble and sand down the seam to make it flush. Pain in the butt - but it worked.

While I was at it I discovered that the hoses were clogged with dried up waste! Fun. - replaced the hose leading from the head to the y-valve. I've got enough hose to replace more - which I'll do later.

3) Mast - I discovered that the VHF antenna cable had been severed - so I replaced it with new cable. Also I had NEYR replace the shrouds (forestay, backstay, uppers, intermediates, babystay).

4) Hood over the companionway. I've been getting leaks and I suspected core saturation. Removed hood. Started on the starboard side - cut a 2" round hole near the aft bolt hole. Found wet core. Thinking that they'd all be like that I cut a 2" wide strip of deck out moving forward. To my surprise i found dry core and plywood around the other 3 holes. On 2 of the 4 holes in the front I found saturation. On the port holes - 1 of the 4 was wet.

For each hole - I removed as much core as possible. Using a wood chisel I removed the core (plywood). Where there were thru bolts I plugged the hole on the inner skin with rolled up paper towel plugs (cut excess away with razor blade). Then wetted all surfaces with epoxy (west system). Then mixed epoxy with High density filler and applied with caulking gun.

Next i will sand down the repair, drill new holes, lifecaulk the hood in place and tighten the bolts down.