Sunday my daughter Alex decided she was going with me to spend the day at the boatyard. Pretty neat huh? How many ten year olds want to spend the day with dad at a boatyard?

Then I discover its all a plot between Chelsea and Alex to get together! They pulled some internet strings that coerced Don, her dad, to bring Chelsea to the boatyard.

Poor Don. The internet Jetboat boys had a Christmas dinner party last night. Don stayed late and, through some bizarre twisted circumstances, ended up spending the night, in the pouring rain, in his Jeep. Naturally he wasn't up to his usual chipper self.

I sanded, Alex and Chelsea happily chatted in the truck and Don, for much of the time, sat in his Jeep and snoozed.

Oh! Weather? An absolutely beautiful day, for once.

I am so tired of looking at this dumb keel..

This side was pretty much finished., just about ready for paint.. Then I broke through my sealing coat! Arrgh! That would be the light spot circled in red on the picture there. I'll going to see if I can do a touch up coat over that bit and call this side done.

The other side has not yet been finish sanded. Actually, the finish sanding isn't all that tough, it goes pretty quickly. I thought the block sanding was the real bear. I'm hoping to have this entire faring project wrapped up, if I can get anther day or maybe two of work. Then, of course, there is the bottom sanding itself. But after that? I'm cuttin' checks for the bottom painting and whatever I missed in prep. work.

The plywood that the boat is sitting on is now glued to the bottom of the keel. I'll try to chisel it loose before handing the project off to Art. Not much can be done with the boat sittin' on it though.

With the keel project winding down, attention is getting drawn to other systems on the boat.

We plugged in shore power Friday to see if the batteries would take a charge. And, well.. They didn't. All of the electronics came alive, that in itself was pretty neat to see.

It acted like the batteries were not connected at all. It was starting to rain, so I didn't bother looking into it very much. I suspect that the Perko switch is corroded up inside. I've seen that before on other boats and that would cause what we're seeing. Or maybe the batteries are really dead? Ugh! I hope not!

Tried to turn the ignition key on. The outside part fell off into my hand. The rest of the key switch fell back into the boat. Its probably dangling by some rusty wires in there somewhere.

I love that little Yanmar engine, but the controls seem to leave much to be desired. I've spent more time with no engine stop cable than with. The cable is always corroding up solid. The control panel leaks water into the boat . The last time I looked, years ago, all of its guts were turning to rust. I'm betting they don't look any better now.