Poor Lambi has got her first tick for the year. I think she picked it up at the boat club when she was rolling around in the long grass. Ticks (fästingar) are very common in the Stockholm archipelago and cause problems every year over summer with both animals and humans. Lambi usually gets one or two ticks a year and we are really careful to check her thoroughly when she has been out in the countryside. Fortunately she has pale pink skin and white, fluffy fur so we can usually see the little black buggers while they are still crawling along trying to find a place to bite her. It is quite early in the season, so I was very surprised to see one. Something else to watch out for in my spare time.

I'm absolutely knackered and I think posting will be sparse for the next week or two. It is now the time to apply the layers of epoxy resin to the hull of the boat. This is an awful job to do and I have forced Lars-Göran to let me do my share of it. It took me a long time to convince him. You'd think he'd jump at the chance to halve the workload, but he didn't want me to be tired and sore. I think the martyr gene runs through his blood. I had to absolutely and stubbornly INSIST and now I'm paying the price with sore muscles etc, but at least we are sharing the pain of getting her seaworthy. As I get to share the pleasure and joy of sailing in her in the summer, it's only fair that I help out with the preparation as well.

Many boats have already been launched and it is looking more clear around Fiona and thus easier to work.



She is the boat covered by the white tarpaulin. We have to apply eight layers of epoxy resin to the hull, allowing at least 12 hours between the layers. It is also important that the temperature during the drying time is above zero, so this means a morning job, every morning for eight days. We began yesterday with the first layer and it was a pain. Poor Lars-Göran already has a slight allergy to epoxy, so he has to dress in a lot of safety equipment to even get near the stuff.



I feel so sorry for him dressed in masks, overalls, head protection etc. The sun was shining down and he quickly became very hot and bothered. It was at this point that he could see how good it was that we were both there. While he applied the stuff with a roller, I was hand painting some tricky areas, then we swapped for a while so we had a break from the backbreaking work. It is a two-component product, so we had to fiddle around measuring out base, hardener and thinner and mixing it all up. It is also the consistency of golden syrup (ljussirap), so damn hard to apply with a roller, plus there was the time factor of getting it finished before it became too hard to work with.



You can see that it is easier for me as I only need to wear ordinary overalls and disposable plastic gloves for protection. We also were smart and bought the epoxy in two different colours (grey and white) so we can apply a different colour each day and easily see that we cover the boat properly each time. This preparation is highly toxic, so care must be taken not to inhale it or get it on your skin as it causes a rash not unlike poison-ivy. It is not easy as the hull is big, curved and you have to bend all of the time. Except for the times you must reach over-head! *gnäll, gnäll*

It is times like this that I wonder why we sold our small boat and bought this monster. I was trying to squeeze out sympathy from our friend Randall who we went to see to do a book/video swap and he laughed heartily as his little baby, Inshallah, is tiny and as he told us, it only took him an hour to paint his hull. You can compare the size difference in our boats in this picture taken last July.



It would be so nice to have a boat his size at the moment. Though I know that come summer, we would be longing for the comfort, luxury and speed of our bigger boat, so we have to put up with bigger problems just for that convenience. *sigh*

I was also longing to have our old boat back when our friends Lennart and Anna launched their boat last weekend at our old boat club.



Isn't it a cute boat? She is identical to the boat we used to have. Small, inexpensive and easy to sail. None of this "eight layers of epoxy resin" nonsense. Just paint her, launch her, rigg her then set sail. Compared to that, we have a full circus program going here. After we finish the eight layers, we immediately have to paint the anti-fouling paint (within two hours or we have to sand the whole hull!). Can you tell how enthusiastic I am for day eight? Then we leave that bit to dry for two weeks while we do a Katate Kid on the fibreglass parts (ie "Wax on, wax off") and to sand and apply seven layers of varnish to the wooden areas of the deck. We also have to start bringing down all of the equipment currently stored at home and think about uncovering the monster mast and setting it up ready to launch in the third week of May (we hope).....

And keep going to visit Lars-Göran's mother in hospital every second day....

Hmmm, I think we need a few more hours in the day so we can get a chance to sleep!