Splatters

This post I should have done at least a few weeks ago. Got distracted because of work being crazy busy lately.

The last time I did any painting on the boat, it had warmed up a little that day from the previous week. Not bad, right?

Well, warmer weather brought on some (ok, a LOT) of flying things. I thought the last coat of paint was going on pretty good but the downside of it was a bunch of gnats flying around. It seemed like they were attracted to the paint. That figures!

Not only were they trying to fly into the cup the paint was in, but they were flying into the paint on the boat too while it was still wet. Frustrating, to say the least. I figured I could get them off by washing the areas and/or when I sand for the next coat. Either way, they're done for.

Can you spot them in this picture? all the little black spots on the paint, those are gnats.

I went down the starboard side, got gnats. Went down the port side, then a new surprise.

I was painting with a plastic cup. You know, the one's you use for picnics. Well, by the time I was finishing up on the port side, I look into the cup and saw there wasn't as much paint as only a moment earlier. Turns out that the paint (or maybe it was the thinner) had eaten through the plastic.

The paint didn't just leak out the cup, it got all over the ladder, the ground, part of the trailer and down a pant leg and part of my shoe and on the BOAT. I was wearing gloves so I didn't feel it running down my hand.

With the streaks on my pants, I was thinking it looked like I had a nose bleed. So, a good pair of pants are now work-pants, for boat work and yard work, etc.

During the same visit, I took out the Garmin 546s to sell as I intend to upgrade someday to a larger-screened and more "proper" chartplotter. The latest from Garmin, like the 741xs is looking nice. I'd like to install a new radar and have it all integrated. So now the swing arm is empty of electronics for now. But all that will come later in the refit.

Some good news, due to good timing. I've been looking at battery chargers to replace the 10 Amp charger I had before. There were a couple of them that I was considering. While looking at Cruisers Forum in the classified ads, someone had just listed a ProNautic 1230P charger. Apparently, the guy who listed it bought it then changed his mind for what he wanted to do. So, I nabbed it up quickly as it was at a discount from the list price shown on Defender's website.

It's bigger than I expected it would be so now trying to figure out how/where to mount it, then may have to make new wire runs to hook it all up.