It was a tough weekend. They weren’t the longest days or it wasn’t the physically hardest work we’ve done so far but it was difficult none the less. It had to happen. Normally calm rational loving people have to come into conflict sometime. It’s how one deals with the conflict that matters. We tried to squeeze in a paint job on the mast. The rigger had striped all the standing rigging off the mast in order to replace it. Having the mast laid out sans rigging gave us a golden opportunity to paint it if we acted fast. We didn’t have time for anything fancy but Dan thought we could get in a quick primer followed by a topcoat of enamel. He picked up a few different types of spray paint during the week to try out on some old aluminum stock that he had at home. He painted three samples and after a couple of days did a scratch test to determine the relative adhesion and hardness of the different paints. Rustoleum brand metal primer & enamel topcoat spray paint seemed to perform best. Dan was really invested in this project.We started prepping the mast early Saturday morning with Dan sanding and Susan following up with a solvent scrub. We were going to do one side at a time and managed to get a full coat of primer on one side just before it started to sprinkle. Fortunately the light rain didn’t spoil the paint. While we waited for that paint to dry we moved along with other unfinished projects. Applying the topcoat over the primer was when things started to get difficult. Dan was trying to lay down a gloss coat in 6-8 kts of wind and it didn’t go well. The forecast was rain for the next 8 days so it didn’t seem realistic to wait for a better day. It’s a fine line between achieving gloss coat and having the paint run. When he was done the finish was evenly white but the surface looked blotchy between shiny & matte areas. He went back over it with one more can of paint to try to even things out but made the mistake of grabbing a can of primer instead of gloss. With the wind adding her influence, the pattern of unevenness was not remedied, just different! Dan decided to give it one more try with the gloss. Looking straight at the mast was hard for him to see the paint’s relative coverage. He asked Susan to try to sight down the mast to give him feedback at how the coverage was going. As the paint whirled around unpredictably, Susan, inhaling the airborne paint, could see that the job wasn’t going well and despite some unhelpful tips about how to apply the paint, mostly withdrew assisting as Dan’s frustration level grew. He continued to insist that Susan help. It wasn’t good energy and the job didn’t come out any better. The tension had built and a simple apology on both parts did not relieve it. We were polite throughout the rest of the evening but the dialog did not begin until the next day when another technical challenge faced us. Later that night Susan suggested Dan buff down the gloss sections of the mast and repaint with a matte finish. That turned out to be a good suggestion. Dan went back the next morning and lightly sanded the gloss and then resprayed; it turned out looking fine. We’ll finish the other side of the mast once all this rain lets up. We learned a bit more about painting and a lot more about each other. The big lesson learned is to watch the stress levels, keep the communication channels open and for both of us to work to communicate our feelings; we were both hurting for lack of words.
When the rain let up, and in spite of the fog, we were able to get the last coat of bottom paint on Gypsy. Susan had this last gallon of paint shaken at the store and this paint went on with the best color homogenization of all. Susan managed to get the hull mostly compounded; Dan got the bow thruster and its tunnel painted with Micron CSC antifouling paint. The last thing we did on Sunday was to start installing the two brackets (deck & lower support) for the new inner-forestay. That was another taxing job that forced us to work closely together in the confined (pointy) end of our forward V-berth with power tools, epoxy filler with a good level of precision. By the time we finished for the day we were working together better than before. Perhaps it’s as Nietzsche suggested; “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Then again, what did he know about working on boats? Dan observed that when working on boats; that which doesn’t kill us leaves us coated in multi layered paint.
