
The work never seems to end on City Dogs. We’ve been getting tons of projects finished in the past several days. It’s nice to actually be removing items from our list of things that need to get done instead of constantly adding them...

Perhaps the most visible change is the new plexiglass skylight that we put in a few days ago. It was an all-day affair and simply would not have happened without the amazing help we got from Andrew. Removing the old glass was tough work, even though it was leaking the old sealant didn’t want to let go -- and by the time we finally finished getting the plexiglass up a little after 1pm-- we found there was a fairly large crack through it -- which meant we needed to get over to Ace Hardware before they closed at 2pm to get a whole new 8’ x 4’ sheet of plexiglass. Of course we don’t have a car so just finding someone with a truck or van able to take us there was a monumental undertaking. Finally we found someone close who was able to get us there and we managed to get the plexiglass before they closed, got it tied to the top of the van and back to Parrot Tree.

Luckily the old glass wasn’t completely broken so we were able to trace it on the new sheet and cut it with a power saw. Getting the new glass in was simple compared with taking it out. We just laid down the good old butyl tape, put the glass in position and then applied generous amounts of life calk to seal it all up nice and good. It hasn’t rained yet but it looks amazing and should alleviate the leaks that we’ve had from the corners.

Andrew also did some amazing fiberglass repair work on a big crack that we noticed running underneath the windlass the other day when we were replacing the cracked window gasket that had been leaking gear oil down into our anchor chain locker. We had to unbolt the windlass and prop it up so we could sand the fiberglass down around the crack. Then we put some new glass down to fill in the crack. Once it dried Andrew sanded it back down again and viola -- no more crack. We need to touch it up with some gelcoat to make it look nice but for now it's functional and safe...
We also finally finished installing our WiFi booster -- not an easy job but it’s nice to be sitting here typing this inside City Dogs in our marina slip instead of hauling my laptop out somewhere to find a decent signal.

We also had some custom cushions made for our cockpit. Instead of going with an all blue color scheme to match our other canvas we went with a nice light gray that looks really nice against the white gelcoat.

The canvas guys also made a connecting piece between our bimini and dodger -- using our sailrite sewing machine -- and made our dinghy chaps.

It wasn’t quick work, it wasn’t easy work, they were on board working for several days -- but the final results look great and really speak for themselves. At this point in our sewing careers it’s not something we could have done ourselves and the cost, while not insignificant, was a fraction of what we would have paid for this kind of work back in the States.

We also replaced our zinc anode on our propeller as it was starting to show some wear. We’ve also taken the time to attempt and fix another leak from our starboard chainplate that I previously attempted to fix with a bit of hack silicone job. Hopefully the life calk will hold and no longer leak. Fingers crossed! We have been doing some minor gelcoat repairs, and have been using some good marine rust cleaner to keep stuff from corroding.
