WORK WORK WORK

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

So another couple of weeks and for the most part all I have to report is spelled out in the title
WORK, but that is what boat yards are ment for anf I am making good progress. The best news that after being in the "land of plenty" USA for the last four weeks Kathy returns on Sunday to help me cope with the mess that is our home.

Rcently there has just been lots of sanding, tapeing, varnish or painting, pulling tape and the same goes on for three or fouyr coats. Remembering on varnish it's never the last coat!!! One goal has been for 97% of the galley to be done before Kathy returns and I should meet that,asuming varnish/sanding boy Calvin takes no unscheduled days off. When you work a six day week for $10 US /day you may have the I can't see coming to work problem but think of supporting a wife and child on that income in any place other than this. A great place for our dollar to get work done that's for sure.

Hope these photos load!!!


FOR DAYTIME THE STOVE LIVES ON MY BUNK
AS VARNISH WORK PROGRESS'S





HAZEL HELPING OUT
CAT HAIR IN THE VARNISH
NO NO!!!!




IF I HAVE LIST AT LEAST SOME THINGS GET DONE




SOMETHING FINISHED




NOT QUITE DONE AROUND THE SINK

Hopefully more finished in the next few days!

SLOOOOOW!!!!

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen. Cebu Philippines

So after trying to update the blog with photos for the last four hours and half a bottle of RUM . You got what You got. Frustration with internet speed. I hope those that follow us get some idea of what we are doing besides being exasperated over the internet connectivity here.

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WORK

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carman , Phillipines

Here and working away. That at least goes for me as Kathy has abandoned ship to visit family and friends back in Southern California. She is set to return the end of the month and I am trying to the the jobs done that create the most mess.

 Currently our aft berth is filled with finished varnished items, the old cockpit cushions and whatever else I can stick in there. The v-berth which is in the process of a total re-do is also filled with more stuff. I'm not sure why we have so much stuff but we do and it's pretty much all necessary to our lifestyle and the work that needs to be done when in a boat yard. I say currently under re-do for the v-berth as I was waiting for materials to finish the new headliner and let our carpenter, Esmer, move on to work on another boat but he is soon to return. That of course is if I can finish the work in the main saloon so what is now stuffed in the v-berth can return to it's normal resting places.

In the main saloon/galley area our current worker Calvin and I are busy sanding, painting and varnishing. If only you did not have to allow drying time things would move much faster. So it's two coats of primer and three of finish, a minimum of five days so you may as well add another two and you can see that everything just takes time. I don't mind the rest periods but I need to keep Calvin busy. I pay the yard 550 Philippine Pesos per day which translates to about $13 US. Now he most likely only see's  400 pesos or about $10 US/day and he works hard !! We have been looking for a spot like this where labor is still inexpensive since we bought Po oino Roa almost 13 years ago and we are going to take advantage of it and get every bit of work done the we can afford before crossing the pacific back to the coast of California and Mexico.

Now to see if the photos will load!!!!!!


THE NEW CABINET, NOW FOR KATHY VTO BRING THE CATCHES
INSTEAD OF BLUE TAPE



Add caption




LOOK AT THAT SHINE NO MORE WHITE FORMICA

 

VARIOUS VARNISH PROJECTS

WORK CONTINUES

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu
Philippines

Living on a cruising boat the work never ends but being in a boat yard such as Pinoy with inexpensive labor other than visioined projects seem to take on as life of their own. On arrival there were to main projects, a new hard bimini and a cabinet to replace the ladder in the aft cabin. The cabinet is installed and today I started the finish of putting hinges on the doors. It has been a wait to get the hinges from "worst marine" in the States. The bimini work has not yet started, but a full re-hab of the v-berth is well underway.

The v-berth project started as just painting out, white instead of varnish, a very water damaged bulkhead  to a complete re-do. The headliner material has been removed from the hull sides and replaced by wood strips. The coach roof headliner was also removed and will be replaced by new. Today I sanded the varnish and applied a second coat of new gloss, previously the entire inside of "Po" had been satin finish. Sanding 3 1/2 hours varnish another two. Then it was on to try and finish some of the cabinetry work. The 3/8" x 3/8" offset hinges of course did not fit so some custom chisel work was necessary. Two down and three to go as I write and have my daily ratiom of rum.

I am in to bachalorhood now as Kathy has returned to the States to visit with the grandbabies along with some shopping. So for now it's Blue Cat, Hazel Cat and I busy working away.

No photos today.

CHAOS

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu Philippines

While here in the yard and deligently working away I had hoped to keep the blog updated with photos weekly. As you can see this is not what has happened. Work continues on all fronts but not to show in photos. It seems the biggest reason for delay is in the sanding and varnish part of the finish work. First things are sanded, then three coats of sealer with sanding between each followed by either two or three coats of gloss finish with more sanding in between. The results look great but from when the carpenter completes his work until Calvin our sander/varnisher complets his it's at least another week. In the meantime both Kathy and I are kept busy supervising and directing Esmer, the carpenter, and Calvin so work progresses how we want it. This, of course, is along with the other projects that she and I are doing. The cabinet that has been built I actually installed yesterday. Now we wait for the 1/4 round trim to to made and finished another four days then I can install it and we can put a final coat of satin varnish on to complete the job. Well almost as we are still waiting for the hinges that had to be ordered from the U.S. For the time being we live in a chaotic environment. the forward v-berth torn apart, no saloon table, piles of stuff everywhere along with all the paint and varnish supplies and fumes strun about. Hey we do see progress and improvement every day.

We have taken time for some shopping trips to the big city of Cebu and even spent the night last weekend. The shopping malls are huge and rival any back in the states. They are also extremely crowded. A trip to anywhere involves several modes of transport for us from the small trikes, either peddle or motorized to taxi's and buses. I've managed to video some of the trike rides but so far have been unable to upload any due to the slow internet.

That's it for now as it's time to check on workers, have breakfast and then do my sanding and painting in the v-berth.

ONE COMPLETION BUT LOTS TO GO

Pinoyu Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu Philippines

Two weeks since my last update and one more project completed, well almost. You last saw the beginnings of the cut out for the making better use of the area under the navigation seat area.
 

HERE WE SEE THE WASTED SPACE BEHIND THE DRAWERS

DRAWERS REMOVED LOCKER PAINTED AND NEW SMALL CUBBIES FOR SOME TOOLS

THE OLD DRAWER FACES WILL BE HINGED TO COVER THESE CUBBIES
I AM WAITING FOR THE ORDERED HINGES TO BE DELIVERED

The next major undertaking is in our aft cabin. Here there has been a ladder up and into the cockpit, our plan has been to remove the ladder and replace it with a storage cabinet that will also act as a ladder to go from the cabin up into the cockpit. We seldom use this ladder but feel it provides necessary access up and down. The following show the work in progress by one of the carpenters here in Pinoy boat Yard

THE OLD LADDER

SPACE TO BE USED

A PLAN

ESMER, OUR CARPENTER

FIRST TWO TABLE SAW CUTS THEN THE PLANKS WERE RIPPED BY HAND SAW



HERE IT'S MOSTLY HAND TOOLS



PLANKS GLUED AND READY FOR SANDING

USING MY DRILL TO FASTEN CLEATS

HERE'S THE BASIC'S





So as of the finish of work on Saturday we  have an idea of how things will look. There is stiil quite a bit to figure out. The plan is to have drawer faces on what we see as the large riser faces that will hinge open.

Since we had only a half day of a worker and I also needed a rest from my project of renovating in the v-berth area Kathy and I took a bus trip to the closest of the big shopping malls. I needed to visit the Ace Hardware and it was time to pick up some more groceries. The bus trip in was uneventful and we managed most things on the list. The difficulty came on our attempted return as all the direct buses were full, traffic on an early Saturday evening was terrible. We finally managed to be approached by one of the small local passenger carrying trucks who asked where we needed to go it was way past where he intended to go but a deal was made for 500 pesos and we were on our way. Of course that only got us 90% home. Next it was a peddle tryke to the main tryke teminal and finally a motor tryke home.

WE'VE SEEN AS MANY AS 3 BEHIND THE OPERATOR



BEGINNING TO WORK

Pinoy Boat Yard
Port Carmen, Cebu, Philippines

After a little more than a week here in what we refer to as Zeke's but is in actually the Pinoy Boat Yard we have settled in getting all our preperations done and have now started on the projects that we hope to accomplish. The first construction wise has actually been finished except for tomorrows job of refilling the newly sealed and painted lockers under what we refer to as the "Cleopatra" couch on the starboard side of the saloon.

We have also been busy with sanding and varnishing in the aft cabin. I sand and Kathy gets to do the fun part of applying the new varnish. It's looking good, but tomorrow we get a carpenter/cabinet maker to start on the new cabinet that will replace the aft cabin ladder. We would imagine that once he has finished it will be necessary to add some more coats of varnish. Years ago we were told by a varnish professional two things. One, it's never the last coat and two when applying don't try to get smarter than the varnish.

This afternoon, post siesta, I started on the new project of improving the storage under the navigation station seat. The normal arrangement was two drawers which wastes lots of space. Our new look will have the drawer faces still there but hinged with small compartments behind them and then the rest of the area accessable from a lift up lid under the cushion seat. As I started cutting and removing old wood we found areas that need epoxy repair but that was expected. It will add some time to get the job completed but we seem to have plenty of that.

MY PILE OF TOOLS IN THE V-BERTH THAT WERE PREVISOUSLY IN THE SPACE
UNDER THE CLEOPATRA COUCH

SOON THE NEW SEWING CABINET WILL BE HERE

SANDED AND READY FOR PAINT

 

EXISTING CABINET WITH DRAWERS

CUTTING OUT THE NEW LID

 Stay tuned for more as the improvements continue.