Confined to my cabin

It's another cold and wet day, so I'm once again confined to my cabin. However, I did cleanup around the boat and rerouted my water and power lines this morning. They've started hauling out boats, so I got a new neighbor yesterday and had to unhook everything to get it out of the way. They put a 40 footer right next to me, so I moved stuff around, mainly the water lines, so I'd have good access and not trip over anything in the dark.

I also filled my water jugs and might go ahead and refill my main tanks this afternoon. But I'll need to rearrange the forecastle again to get access to the valve under the v-berth. I moved the paint and resin up there when it started getting cold so I could keep it a little warmer. It's only been down to the mid to low 50's at night, so there's no chance of anything freezing, but since it's all temperature sensitive, I didn't want to have to start out with it cold once it stops raining and warms back up above 60.

I started cleaning up the hardware I need to remount yesterday, so I'll continue that today and see if I can get the forecastle straightened up enough to get the paint up off the sole so it will stay a little warmer. I might also move it into the main cabin -- I close off the forecast at night to keep the main cabin warmer -- but don't really know where I'd put it. Luckily, I only need to worry about a few cans right now. Unfortunately, the cans of resin and hardener are a little messy, so I have to be carefully. Everything else is either new are really clean, but the resin and hardener cans are really hard to keep clean since I'm using pumps that I keep screwed on all the time (they've been that way for a couple of years now).

However, I recently read that you can use vinegar to neutralize epoxy, e.g., to clean up your hands and tools after you mix and use it. I tried it the other day and it worked great. But since it's acidic, they recommended not getting it on the deck. Maybe it will help clean up the cans. I've used acetone before, but that's hard on me and certainly not something I want in the cabin.

The only problem with the vinegar is that it makes me smell like salad after I use it. I'm long past my salad days, at least for life in general. But since this is my first sailboat and I'm learning as I go, perhaps it's more appropriate than I first imagined. Actually, that wouldn't be a bad name for a boat. But I still like Aurora, so I'll keep it, though I guess I could name the dingy.

Zoe watch:

She's hanging out under the boat. I made a little wind break for her the other day out of the old bimini. She seems to like it. However, she's off her schedule again due to the rain, so we'll take another walk soon. It's been nasty for the last few days, but should clear up by Thursday. I took her for a short walk late last night and scared up a big rabbit in the boat yard. I think she's hoping it'll walk by again while she's hiding behind the bimini.