I spent most of the day working on the chainplates. I'd planned to re-caulk them a few days ago, but it got late and looked like rain, so I waited. Today was great, so I cleaned out the old caulk completely on the starboard side -- the side that was leaking -- and just touched up the other.
However, while I was cleaning out the old caulk, I noticed one of the chainplates had a bit more play in it than I would have expected, so I went below and checked the bolts. It turned out that all the nuts where somewhat loose. Snug enough to require a wrench, but by no means tight, so I re-tightened them all, then redid the caulking.
I used fast curing 5200, and placed tape underneath to keep the wet caulk from flowing out of the joint. They turned out pretty good, but I think I'll paint them once they fully cure just to be safe -- 5200 isn't UV resistant.
After I was done, I started thinking about the loose nuts again, and decided to remove them all and re-tighten them with locktight. I'm sorta lazy, so it took me a while to finally get around to it; While the port side ones were easy, the starboard side were a real pain, but it was the right thing to do, and I'll sleep better.
Zoe watch:
With all the work, I've been sleeping pretty well lately, but still not as much as Zoe. I keep thinking I'm done, and we can just hangout and swim or whatever, but something always comes up -- boats are a lot of work. You can ignore your house, and even your car, but if you ignore your boat, you might end up with wet feet, or paws, as the case may be. My goal is to keep Zoe's paws dry.
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