Although I’d applied sun cream the day before, I didn’t apply it to the middle of my back and the red burn area is exactly where my fingers didn’t reach. Reminded me a bit of the legendary Siegfried’s “weak spot” (although mine is significantly larger than an oak leaf, and I didn’t have to bathe in dragon’s blood to get it). I’d read that T-shirts only offer about a 7-10 SPF so I decided to do as much as possible below decks today. After fiddling about trying to the get internet connection working (I had a very powerful signal from Saba Rock, but for some reason the connection was intermittent and very slow as if the signal were weak and distant) so that I could read my e-mail I decided to switch over the forward double-cabin arrangement to a single-cabin one. This meant removing the middle wall panels and stowing them. Getting the wall down was easy, but I’d used the space reserved for the wall components for storage and had to figure out alternate locations for the displaced items and that took longer than expected. In the end I made up the new, larger, bunk and put the new sheets to use.
The sun was bright but the aft section of the boat was in shade, so I applied some more SPF 30 and put on my thickest-looking cotton T-shirt and went to work with the new cleaning material, Star Clean, and a toothbrush and attacked the stainless with a vengeance. I’d never really gotten close to all the stainless fixings before, I’d just applied cleaner to a cloth and given it a quick buffing but using a toothbrush meant getting into each corner, nook and cranny and there were certainly lots of little rust spots that I’d never noticed. Some of the items, like the pelican hooks for the aft openings, had significant rust on them so I opted to use a 2-pass method – getting rid of most of the rust this pass, and then doing the fine filigree work on the next pass.
Doing this work took up much of the afternoon and before I knew it the sun was setting and I had to decide what to make for dinner. I’d used the slow-cooker to make several dishes which I’d frozen and I took out the top item which turned out to be a simple beef stew from some cubed beef chunks and a sauce composed mainly of onions and beef broth. The slow-cooker had done a good job of making it a tasty meal (12 hours of cooking time) and I thawed it out in the microwave and heated up a potato to make for a simple but satisfying dinner.
