Todays main activity was popping into town and getting some hard to find chemicals. I bought:
2 litres of Acetone, for cleaning surfaces before applying epoxy glue
1 litre of MEK, not sure what that is for, but heard it’s very useful to have. I think it’s a solvent for epoxy, which means it can dissolve my boat, hmmm.
1 litre of Isopropyl, or something like that, another good cleaner, I think its like alcohol. Chemistry isn’t my strong point
1kg of Oxalic Acid crystals, these dissolve in warm water to make an excellent cleaner for most things, but it works very well in cleaning teak.
The total price for this was £10, can’t complain. I bought this from a shop run by a rather famous local man called Mr Ong, the chemical man. He is 91 and is thinking of retiring soon. I had a brief chat with him in the shop. It’s amazing what you can buy here. Later I bought some sheets of hard rubber/plastic, used for cutting soles for shoes from a shoe repair and leather supplier. This will fit under the bowsprit nicely and protect the sprit and the galvanising on the anchor, again, just £2.
I bought some plastic sheeting in a shop and asked for a discount as it was a bit shabby, the guy dragged his abacus over and used it to knock 10% off, very impressive how fast he used it.
I use Uber to get around, they are very good, cheap and most of the drivers are ethnic Chinese so their English is generally better than the ethnic Malaysians. As was usual I had to explain everything about the boat and our plans, and as usual, the drivers are amazed we are sailing around the world, after lots of questions this driver asked me if I was a proper sailor man, I replied yes, I suppose so, to which he launched into singing “I’m popeye the sailor man, I live in ….”. When he extracted from me that I was doing this trip with my girlfriend, he started exclaiming over and over, “So Romantic, So romantic”. I would have said, stop here, drop me off here, yes, this motorway flyover is just fine. However it’s difficult to change your destination on Uber, even harder not to give your driver 5 stars after the trip, just in case you get him on the way home.
Later back at the boat I pulled the aircon off the deck and cleaned up, we will get this deck looking fit for purpose soon.
Tonight we went for dinner at Supertanker, a giant Chinese / Thai foodcourt. Erik drove us there and I think Kathy enjoyed it. I love the place, great food, dirt cheap and a lovely busy but friendly atmosphere. I had a tasty chocolate and banana pancake for pudding from a vendor who is famous for his wares.
General chores tomorrow, specifically the sails and control lines and the water tank guages.
Paul C
Acetone is the solvent. Smells like nail varnish remover (which is basically acetone). MEK is Methyl-Ethyl Ketone and it’s horrible. Be careful with it. Use gloves, etc. It’s not a solvent, it’s a catalyst. It won’t do anything to existing fibreglass (AFAIK). It just causes the polyester resin to start to harden. The more MEK the faster it goes off. I don’t think it’s any use with epoxy, just polyester resin. Isopropyl alcohol is a combination of ethanol (good) and methanol (bad). Don’t drink it. 🙂
Thanks for that Dermot, I get through lots of acetone during epoxy repairs, I also use it to degrease before the first coat of varnish, it’s good for lifting the natural teak oil from the surface.
Will be careful with the MEK should I ever need to use it.
I enjoyed the abacus story, but I think even I could do the 10% calculation in my head 😉
If say you know the town pretty well by now it must be fun hinging slim these places.
?? I hope the emojis work in the comments section because your taxi driver sounds a riot.
I quit using acetone several years ago. So toxic. I use denatured alcohol with great success. Might want to reconsider your chemicals.
Thanks Bruce, I will investigate. I must admit, I prefer not to think of all the chemicals I have had contact with over the years, probably starting with the asbestos that was dumped in fields we used to play in as kids. The slim slices of asbestos made great frisbies!