A Third World Port? No, Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor

Unbelievable the amount of trash that floats in the greater L.A./Long Beach Harbor!  Yesterday, January 6, 2011, the stuff just came around this old marina thick enough in places one could almost walk across it.  Blame it on all the trash that does not make into the landfills but rather along the streets that drain to the concrete rivers which flow to the ocean.  Add in the heavy recent record setting rains in Southern California, and one has the results here in the harbors.  Sad but true!  Picture proof of our land pollution.  Not a single day goes by that I don't see many plastic bags floating in the ebb and flow of the tide.

On a more germane topic to the refit of ETAK, I can say that I got some more done during all the floating trash.  The port ama (float) had some wood deterioration on the outside of the hull.  I got some bog into it and will cover that today with some cloth and glass.  In the galley area I began stripping several coats of old paint off the main bulkhead to get down to bare Douglas fir ply in order to seal up the grain permanently before adding a finish topcoat (still a long time away).

Recoating surfaces that should have been done before building the boat is twice (may ten) times as hard to do now.  But, it is getting done, square inch by square inch. 

The forward starboard wet locker in the wing area now has a fresh coat of epoxy resin on support lip that will get an additional coating today while the resin is still green.  My hands are still stiff from the heat gun stripping yesterday but not as bad as last night when they would cramp with certain movements.

Those two lines going under the wing deck are connected to my 10 foot lapstrake dinghy.  While I am working topside it is much easier to have the dink in the drink and out of the way.  The downside is I need to haul it up on the dock occasionally and wipe the bottom down since there is no anti-fouling paint on the underside.

We took our first ride in the little guy the other day, heading downstream along the channel and looking at other vessels in our area.  The return trip took a bit longer since we were going against the current.  It felt good to row the dink again, and Doreen enjoyed the ride.

Let's hope for less harbor trash today!