How I became a Welsh coalminer. Part V. Subtitle: Playing with power tools in hail storms.

Simon and I spent only a day in London before we were off again to Southampton to get supplies for Polar Bear's refit. The plan was roughly:

• Sand the hull back with rotary sanders as far as needed to ascertain its condition and to change its color from blue to white
• Repair rust on rudder with acid and grinder
  
• Repair weak spots in hull with epoxy
• Prime, paint and anti-foul
• Change batteries and check electrics
• Clean out the bilge (it was filled with oily water)
• Remove all the junk from inside and air the boat out
• Check engine, change the oil, etc.
• Replace Welsh flag with British flag
• Check rigging, anchor chain, sails, etc.
• Stow all our stuff
• Sail it to Portsmouth, where we would place her back on the hard for a more thorough refit of the inside and topsides (including, most importantly, putting in hot water and a shower)

This was quite a tall order, so we decided we had to move to Wales, albeit temporarily. We had about two weeks to accomplish this stuff, with a weekend in the middle already booked with teaching work in Port Solent for Simon. Since it was about an eight hour drive to Pwllheli, several days were lost to transportation. We had no time to waste. Simon and I moved to the George hotel for the first week and camped out in the boat after that.

Now, I won't get into the mechanics of how we accomplished all of this work, because I imagine most of you will find that boring. If you really want to know how we did any of this stuff, feel free to email or comment and I will supplement this post.

Suffice it to say that we were covered in black dust and oil from head to toe for the entire two weeks. We were so streaked and stained black, that when we walked around town to get lunch or supplies, people stared at us and came up to us just to ask us what we had been doing. And, yes, I was asked almost daily whether we had been "down in the coal mines." It wasn't unreasonable to ask, since I'm obviously too big to be a chimney sweep, gov. I laughed and embraced my inner Pig Pen.

The sixteen hour days of hard labor that left us sore and filthy were masochistically fun. There is something really satisfying in physical labor and in building something, especially when you get to play with lots of power tools! Even though I have a million projects going right now (not the least of which is starting a business... shameless plug: Version 1.0 of GoodSharks.com launching in June), I was able to get lost in my coalminer alter ego while I went inch by inch over the hull with my sander. They were zen days.

We had only one industrial accident, too, despite the fact that we were working in intermittent hail and rain storms. One afternoon, I was using some acid to remove rust off the rudder. Unfortunately, it got under my gloves and onto my thermal shirt. I will tell you that claims of wicking action is not an advertising gimmick! The fabric wicked the acid right up my arm and I ended up getting a nasty burn. The cold water hose (fun for me in the freezing cold Welsh spring) was handy, but I still had to go back to the hotel and shower for about twenty minutes. I even burnt my fingertips removing my shirt, which made holding hot coffee the next day a rather unpleasant experience.

So, the good news is that the hull turned out to be in excellent condition, although it took us way longer to sand it than we hoped it would. In fact, everything took a little longer than we hoped, so I had to leave Simon in Wales to sail Polar Bear down to Portsmouth on his own. He had ten days and a volunteer in his good friend Alex, so we felt pretty confident that he would make it OK. But, alas, he only made it about half way....

You'll just have to tune in next time to find out why Simon ended up having Polar Bear towed to the port in Falmouth, leaving her on a mooring buoy and going to Spain. I returned to California to sell my car, rent my house out and be the maid of honor in my friend Michelle's wedding. (Woo hoo! Crazy bachelorette party on Friday!)

Team Polar Bear rendezvous next in London on June 1.

PS - Next time you all need to clean out a wet and oily bilge, it turns out that baby diapers work great. I found it amusing that I went to the store just for a bag of diapers, a can of grease and a case of beer. There's got to be a redneck joke in there somewhere.