I worked so long and hard on these chairs. I can’t seem to get a good shot of them but just for the record here are a few angles . . . I would expect I have about $500 invested in labour, wood, leather, silicone bronze screws, stain, sandpaper and varnish. Per chair!

Here is the salon “suite”. I know the photos are crappy, I just can’t seem to get the camera to adjust to all the shiny reflections of polished varnish. This is simply a “record” of the chair restoration. It is obvious I am not a photographer.

Here are two shots of the new custom leather seats and the new chair backs.

And a close-up of the new chair backs.

Oh my gosh! This blog is a lot of work when I am just “a little busy” getting the ship ready for the season!! Here are a few snap shots of the last minute preparations.

Here the deck chairs get oiled on a fine spring day.

The final step in the spring painting season is when we do the decks. This year we redid the non-skid coating which entails two coats. One on which we sprinkle crushed walnut shell and two days later a second coat to seal the walnut shell in. We mask off the edges of the non-skid areas to make the decks a bit “dressier”. Here Farlyn is taping in preparation for the walnut shell layer.

Farlyn applies the finish and I clamber about sprinkling walnut shell on . . .

and the tape comes off . . .

The decks are done! I will kill anyone who spills anything on the decks now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve catches a few “black details” we forgot . . .

I made a new teak bracket for the aft running light . . . .

Steve polishes the stainless steel anchor guard plate.

Working for my dad is soooo much fun . . . .  it’s like going to the dentist and getting asked too many questions. How do you chat while you work with a respirator on?

How did we miss these bits? Farlyn carefully stains without dripping on the decks.

Luke caaaarrreeefffuulllyyyyyy hand sands the salon table and varnishes it twice and then over two days polishes it to a silky, sensuously smooth finish.

He is getting really good at this.

Then we book a “crew training day” to review safety drills and practice firefighting and abandon ship procedures. Here the portable firepump and the ship’s built-in fire pumps are in action.

Luke and Tavish, our two other skippers practice with the emergency steering tiller.

I am the patient as we practice getting a stretcher on and off the mothership.

Don’t drop me! I am your boss, right. Kids! Now, hey, no fooling around. KIDS!! Really!

And there are the inspections required by Transport Canada. Here the fire extinguishing and fire suppression systems are checked by a certified inspector.

And the propane system is inspected . . .

and the radio systems are inspected by a very thoughtful Canadian Coast Guard Radio Inspector . . .

And Terry, who has worked on Gardner engines in England his whole life tweaks our engine and gives his stamp of approval for the up coming season.

and a HUGE component of the preparations is taken on by Fern. She experiments with new recipes and finally decides on the menus for all the various tours: 3 night, 5 night, 6 night, 9 night, and then creates a master shopping list and orders from large wholesalers. The orders arrive in Campbell River timed to match our 3 days of inspections. Somehow we find room for many hundreds of pounds of stores in the nooks and crannies of the Columbia III.

Here is a taste of our month of April.

From the COLUMBIA III maintenance log:

Sand and Paint: White: the funnels, the aft mast, the entire deck house, the aft deck ceiling, aft deck cabinets, shelves and inside drawers, the inside bulwarks, ladder to roof, new veggie shelf, the hull and draft marks.

S&P Green: the outside bulwarks and the funnel

S&P Grey: The roof trim, deck boxes and all the roof area (just for the sticklers we didn’t sand the roof deck, just scrub and paint).

S & P Light yellow: Forecastle head, aft head, midship shower, forward collision bulkhead door, new galley cupboard shelf, inside 12VDC fridge and new companionway bookshelf.

S & Varnish: All exterior doors, frames and window trims, salon table, transom, chairs, engine rooms storm boards, coffee maker bracket, aft deck drawer fronts and cabinet door trim.

S & Oil: Hand rails, running light boxes, cap rails, guard rails, waterline gum wood , all decks (with new non-skid added on first of two coats) and anchor guard gumwood.

S & P Red: fire buckets, lazarette hatch, funnel stripe and funnel insides.

S & P Black: Anchor winch, hawse hole irons, deck vents and bow iron.

Remove and Repair or Replace and or Inspect: main engine fuel filters, compressor oil, autopilot oil, all seals on autopilot hydraulic ram, diesel fired water heater including bearings, all chain steering shives, ignitor on galley range, wheelhouse trackbar for handheld radios, grease gun mounted to lubricate stuffing box, new start battery for gensets, fix fuel drip on transfer pump system, replace rusting section of emergency fire hydrant system, galley range worklight replaced and inspect exhaust stack cabinet . . . . .

Our spring work season really starts in earnest when deckhand Steve Schellenberg arrives on his sailboat. Steve likes to work long days and keeping him supplied in projects and materials keeps me pretty darn busy!

So I am going to be lazy here. I am working flat out at this time of the year in the boat shed and office work at night. Here is a smattering of photos that are self-explanatory.

We sand everything all at once to get the dusty, messy business out of the way, (I LOVE OUR BOAT SHED!!!!)

Then we wash EVERYTHING  . . . .

Then we start to paint and varnish and oil everything . . .

and work continues on the inside of the vessel and in the shop on smaller components . .

And we take things apart to inspect and repair and replace . . .

More photos to come as work progresses . . .