Progress on Nine of Cups

Removing masking tape from newly varnished stern rails

Though we’ve been visiting forts in Virginia and viewing eclipses in South Carolina, work on Nine of Cups has been progressing quite nicely, albeit slowly. David has been working (except on those valued, but scarce days off) exceptionally hard to complete all the chores necessary to make sure Cups is “shipshape and Bristol fashion” … ready for sale.

The Captain is up to his eyeballs in boat projects (surprising, huh?) and so the first mate is taking over for this week until he’s able to take a breath and get back to Blue View-ing. Here’s an overview of what’s been going on ...

The side decks are repaired and primed ... ready for painting.

The decks have been repaired … hooray. The aft deck has been painted and looks great. The side decks have been repaired and are primed and ready for painting. The foredeck comes next which just requires sanding, priming and painting. Quick work on dry days, but we’re running out of days at the moment.

The starboard and stern cap rails and rub rails have been varnished and are looking well appointed and gleaming. The port side requires varnishing, too, and it’s “on the A-list”.

The deck boxes have been stripped and varnished (eight new coats of varnish!) and put back into place. They're looking lustrous and rich. After all, it's where we store our doubloons.

Did I mention gleaming?

In the process of redoing the decks, all the stanchions have been removed and polished and hardware is being replaced as needed. The word “shiny” comes to mind. Oh, I know, we'll have to do it again before she's sold, but the hard part's done.

Stanchions and stainless are being shined up.

The stern portlights were crazed and needed replacing. New polycarbonate (1/4” Lexan) was ordered and arrived two days ago. David cut them to size and installed three new portlights yesterday.

cutting polycarbonate for the stern portlight replacements.

While David is working topside and sweating profusely, I have been down below cleaning out lockers, nooks and crannies and filling duffel bags with “stuff” to offload from Cups. We have a bit more “stuff” than I would have ever imagined. Funny how in 18 years aboard we could have accumulated so much “stuff” in such a small space. Wait until I try to cram the “stuff” I feel is necessary into Blue. Oh, my!

With several family and social commitments in the next couple of months, Cups will have to wait patiently for more attention. We can use a breather!  We’ll fly to Las Vegas for the month of September and then pick up Blue in Chesapeake and drive to Boston till the third week of October. Maybe Blue will see a little progress ... who knows?

The plan du jour has us returning to the Atlantic Yacht Basin in October, working on Cups for a month which will hopefully allow the time necessary to complete all the planned chores. We'll sail her to Florida at the end of November … St. Augustine maybe? We intend to spend the holidays back in Boston with Lin and family as is our tradition and then return to Cups at the new year. Then … we’ll figure out the best way to find Nine of Cups a new family.