HAVING FUN IN HALF MOON

Looming over Half Moon is the above installation.  Who runs it I don't know.  I did an Internet search, and asked several locals. The Internet search yielded nothing at all, and the locals have said:  1. "I don't know." 2. "It's part of the DEW line." 3. "It's an FAA radar." 4. "What installation?  And by the way who are you?"

Okay, I made #4 up, but DEW line?  For what, to let us know that Hawaii has sprung a sneak attack on us?  I know the King of Hawaii is pissed about all us Gringos coming over to visit and never going home, but I don't think he's ready to go ballistic...yet.

There was a #5 answer: "It's the Martian Base."  That obviously can't be true.  The Martians are not rich enough to afford that piece of land.


Probable location of Martian Base


I will continue my research today after I finish boat projects.

Speaking of boat projects, most people think that cruising about in a sailboat is like being on some kind of vacation.  Were this only true!  What it's really all about is cruising in a sailboat for a while, and then fixing what you broke. 

Usually these repairs start out being a 10 minute job and morph into a 10 hour job and then a 10 day job.  A case in point:  Yesterday I started a little 10 minute sanding project on our companionway cover in preparation for 10 minutes of varnishing.  In my zeal I removed the cover to better access all the areas that needed sanding, adding one hour.  Sanded about two more hours, then I turned the thing over to do a little sanding on the inside.  Horrors, I found a vast area of dry rot. Dry rot is like wood leprosy.  If the wood gets wet for a period of time microbes eat out all the nice fleshy parts leaving only bony, crumbling, weak cellulose. 

I removed all the really bad crumbly stuff and soaked what was left with penetrating epoxy.  The idea being that the epoxy will bond around what is left and restore most of the original wood's strength.  Two more hours finding the stuff, then mixing and applying.  Good enough for today, will let it dry for a day or so and then continue on with my varnishing.



Mixing the epoxy

  

Applying epoxy
Notice the emergency cooler close at hand.



Except at about 3:30 this morning my sub-conscious woke me up to tell me that all that wood I scraped away was supporting the teak decking on top of the cover.  The teak now has no support, and when I or, even worse, Judy step there we will go right through.  Crap, now I'm looking at a 10 hour repair.  If I can figure out how to do it. 

I don't want to think about it, so I'm writing about it instead.  At 6am in the morning.  If that makes any sense.