Lightning strikes!

Abake is safe!  During the heavy rainstorm last night, apparently a couple of boats (the dockmaster's being one of them), and the house on shore, were hit by lightning.  The marina next to us was also hit by lightning.  But Abake, even tho she is only two slips in from the river, was untouched.  Mike checked her today and then started working on her.

We have definitely decided (after a long conversation with Elysium, also a Westsail 42) that we will be locating the stove along the starboard hull.  We are going to take advantage of the gimballing feature and orient it at a perpendicular angle to the sides of the boat.  Too much sloshing and uneven baking we're thinking could mean many ruined meals.  So Mike turned the tub for the icebox and cut off 7.5" and began re-fiberglassing it back together.  Since the tub was huge (and could hold two bodies), we're okay with losing those inches.  But the biggest concern was the low overhanging gunwale over the stove.  We're much more comfortable with this decision.  Only one burner is at the back of the stove; two are in the front.  So what are the odds that we'll be using all 3 burners at once?  Slim -- maybe only at Thanksgiving.  :-)

So Mike was anxious (and excited) to do some fiberglassing.


Removing the 6"

 

Fiberglassing

You can see the fiberglassing at the end of the tub (not the dark line -- that's from manufacturing).  It's curing now.  After that, just the inside needs some touching up.  Now, hopefully we can still use the vacuum-insulated panels that should be arriving soon.









Our pedestal guard also arrived today.  We're happy to say that it passed inspection, as we had it inspected by a very reliable source:

It's a box ... he's a cat.  What else can be said?