If we make it through this

It will be a miracle.

I knew removing the old teak decks would be difficult, but the reality of living aboard while it's happening is just ugly. To remove hardware we have to take everything out of the locker right below it to access the bolts, so there are bags of clothes, toiletries, and foodstuffs scattered everywhere.

Then we have to remove the trim and keepers and headliner, and sometimes shelves, so there are boards and pieces of wood everywhere too, and of course all the hardware, cleats, windlass, and bags of bolts.

Sometimes the nuts are hard to get to; above bulkheads, behind unremovable pieces, behind hoses and wires. Like this one. Not only was it above a non-removable piece of the bulkhead, but the hole in the plywood spacer was too small to fit the socket into even after we drilled an access hole. After a little work with a chisel we got the socket on it and removed it.

It took three hours to disassemble the port quarter berth area, two hours to remove the genoa track and two stanchions, and another hour to clean up the mess and put stuff back.

Another problem is that every nut was slathered with goo on the bottom side of the deck. Not only does that make it difficult to get the socket onto the nuts, but it serves no purpose and DOES NOT help to stop leaks. The sealant needs to be on the outside. In fact, if it's on the bottom it only helps to conceal leaks and actually can force the water into the core causing rot.

And we did find some rot along the port genoa track so the Captain removed the fiberglass skin, replaced the wet wood, and fiberglassed it back together.

We've been working on the decks about three weeks now. Above is what it looked like in the beginning, below is how it looks today. Weve filled about a million holes and the Captain is smoothing and fairing now.