Head and Sole

Boy have we been enjoying having lights on Gypsy. It is not so sunny anymore and the lights are a big help. As the days get shorter the temperature also drops. The Columbia River is down to 55 degrees. Our focus is on what we need to do below the waterline before the temperature gets too cold. West system epoxy, with the fast hardener is supposed to work down to 40 degrees, but I don’t like to have no margin for error.

We worked on the galley refrigerator box,  head vanity and the cabin sole. Last weekend we tabbed in the mini bulkhead under the head vanity. That got sanded and we continued fitting the filler pieces on the cabin sole. Where the plywood cabin sole (floor) meets the sides of the hull, the sole is the fiberglass of the hull. This presents a problem for installing the cherry floor boards. We are going to glue down 1/4 ” plywood to give ourselves a flat surface for the floor boards. We made patterns and cut the plywood triangles out. They got sanded and planed to fit the curve of the hull. Surprisingly, a hand plane worked well.  We also had to sand away the old paint on the fiberglass for a good glue bond.

The galley is also getting attention. The space for the refrigerator got its front panel glued on. We also put a layer of epoxy and cloth on the inside to help prevent moisture getting into the insulation.  No fancy cloth, just the pellon that wrapped a memory foam mattress.