Foredeck and aft hatch lids installed

My foredeck hatch blew off in Hurricane Irma in Sept. 2017. That was the second hurricane in 2 years I experienced in St. Augustine - the other was Matthew. When I first bought the boat, the dealer reminded me that there had been no hurricanes there in 60+ years. Well, we got hit by two in a row, but luckily they had both been reduced in strength a bit by the time they blew by us.

Newly-built exterior hatch frame

 I had been working on the deck so I had removed the hinges and lock on the hatch lid, so I put my old manual windlass on the lid to keep it shut through the storm. However due to the camber of the hatch lid and the force of the wind, the windlass gradually "walked" off the lid and fell off. I was laying down on the v-berth cushion at the time and watched as the hatch blew straight up into the air. It fell into the floodwater and floated away (we had about 2 feet of flooding in my part of the boatyard).  I didn't want to go after it because there were all sorts of sharp, pointy things flying through the air. The funny thing is that barely any rainwater got into the boat because the rain was traveling horizontally.

New v-berth hatch with frame trim piece; lotsa light in the v-berth

I decided to replace the hatch with a Lewmar Ocean 60, to get more light over the v-berth. While I was at it, I also put a Lewmar Low Profile 20 over the head as I previously wrote, and a Lewmar Ocean 40 under the boom. I had decided to install them before painting the cabin top because I didn't want to have three large holes in the ceiling while working on the boat.

Those two went in rather easily, since they required me to only cut a new opening (for the head) or slightly enlarge the existing hole for the aft hatch.

Cutting off the aft hatch frame.

The Lewmar 40 fit easily into the slightly enlarge aft hatch hole

Butyl sealer under the hatch, to be scraped off later

Installing the fore hatch was a bigger project because I had to make the existing hole slightly smaller (by about an inch all around) and build-up the rim to take the screws for the hatch. Down below, the hatch rim had to also be faired and straightened so that the ceiling camber didn't cause an unsightly gap with the frame trim piece (the hatch frame trim piece has a bug-screen which is handy.) 

I used vinyl exterior trim pieces purchased from a local hardware store along with epoxy filler to build-up the rim above and below, then spent hours sanding and shaping it. Lewmar Ocean hatches have a pretty high profile so I had to reduce the height of the rim a bit, so the whole thing wasn't sticking up too high like a turret. I brushed just one coat of gel coat beneath the rim to seal it, and didn't bother sanding it smooth because it was all going to be hidden under the hatch frame trim piece anyway.

While doing all this I noticed a suspicious, weeping bump on the deck near the hatch rim that turned out to be a small patch of rot, which had to be dug out and repaired. No big deal.

After that it was just a matter of making sure the hatch rim top was as flat as possible to minimize chances of water intrusion, and then screwing down the hatch frame using some butyl sealer and one-inch #10 screws.

Insulating the v-berth

This is one of those "might as well" projects since I'm already working on insulating the starboard cabin side and the fore hatch over the v-berth. The hull interior was covered with some sort metallic sheeting with plastic backing, which came off easily enough. The insulating material I used as 3/4" closed cell foam on the cabin sides, and I used 1/2" camping sleeping foam pads with mylar on one side to go under the horizontal surfaces. It was all then covered-up with cedar closet liner boards that I stained a pretty dark color (to help sleeping) and protected with some coats of lacquer (easier to apply than epoxy or varnish especially in hot and humid weather.)

Boatyard wildlife and racoon-feeding

I have had an on-going battle with racoons that regularly raid my food stash. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I swear if they weren't so cute, they'd be a coat and hat by now...

We also have lots of lizards, and also spiders -- big ones! The black widows are cool, with their fat glossy abdomens with the red hour glass mark, but the wolf spiders are really cook because they're about 2 inches, hairy and fast (and harmless)

There are also lots of other creepy-crawlies around: GIANT cockroaches, grasshoppers, velvet ants, lots of fire ants (whose bites leave itchy red welts) plus the no-see'ums that force me to stop working in the late afternoon (neem oil does a good job driving them away but a few manage to get their bites in, leaving very itchy and persistent welts)

I am looking for a Golden Orb Weaver spider as a pet but this Mable Orchard Orb Weaver that was in my work tent was also quite interesting (Leucauge argyrobapta - "dipped in silver")

Removing the heat exchanger zinc

I have a Beta Marine 38 HP diesel motor. I removed the heat exchanger zinc and found out that it was worn down to the nub! Not good, because that means there may be galvanic damage to the heat exchanger.

I plan to remove and clean the heat exchanger, have the injectors cleaned, and do pressure and compression tests on the engine but I don't think it is necessary to rebuild the engine -- at least not this year. She ran fine when I bought the boat, no issues, so other than standard maintenance (change oil and transmission fluid, and replace the water pump impeller) I don't think much more work will be necessary on the engine.

The only real problem with the motor is that the built-in oil change pump had been hanging in the bilge so there's a bit of rust around the pump handle which I am going to address later. Not a priority now. I bought some extra zincs for now and extra oil filters, air filters, etc. I will also be replacing the fuel filter with the Racor dual-filter arrangement (with the metal heat deflectors as required by the ABYC).

Sick kitty!

Had to take Pasha to the vet to remove a golf-ball sized lump from around his chest area which thankfully was not cancerous. He was on painkillers for a while but honestly other than sleeping a bit more than usual, he didn't seem fazed by any of it.

Passing storms

Can't really do much with weather like this but good to see the scuppers draining well...

Catching up with some posts

I had guests over and had to stop work on the boat for a while but now I'm back on track.

The goal is to splash the boat by mid- to late-November and have a shakedown cruise by the end of January 2020.