I had never worked with fiberglass cloth other than sheathing an Optimist dinghy and my boat’s rudder. I hope that I’ll never have to use it again. The cloth was supplied folded instead of rolled. I used a 220 gram cloth. I had meant it to go up from the deck about 5 cms on the cabin sides and about the same down over the edge onto the hull. But that did not work. By squeezing it onto the hull or cabin sides it would lift up from the deck surface. I ended up having to sand these overlaps all off again. It was a messy time consuming exercise. I wished I had just not bothered with the cloth and given it a couple extra coats of epoxy. But it is done as of this morning with two extra coats on the already coated cloth. Now it should get easier with the primer and the final finish paint coat. But it has set me back again off my departure schedule. It has become unbearable hot under the roof shed high up working on the deck. If it is 70 on the floor it is 90 under the roof. This makes working with epoxy very difficult. I try get started by 7 a.m., take a long siesta and work late into the evening.
Today I had a new experience, being interviewed on camera for a documentary about my book “The Mastmakers’ Daughters” and in particular about our mother’s experience in Dachau. It took most of the day.
I like my new shelter in Amstelveen. It is an about 20/25 minute bicycle ride along a very pretty bike path that follows the old train/tram track that starts at the Amstelveenseweg Prison, passes right by “De Schinkel” and ends up about 25 k.m. south of Amsterdam. It is like nothing has changed here in the last 100 years. I have a great place to sleep, shower and cook. Tomorrow I say good bye to the choir members of the Augustinus church.