I know, it’s been a while. That’s what you get for having to pay the bills, a.k.a. having to end your vacation. Day 10 was another 1/2 day, but well worth it. I arrived early morning. Yes indeed — after my morning cup of Tim Horton’s coffee. Since I hadn’t been back for a while it was good to see that Chaucer the dog was really happy to see me, so I spent some time greeting him. Then it was off to work.
Today was final paint application day; coat #1. I chose the sapphire blue, as it will be a great compliment to the darker interior, not to mention that blue is also my favourite colour. The first 1/2 hour was spent hand sanding the primer, blowing and brushing the dust away, and tack clothing the surface.
After moving the canoe inside, to avoid those pesky flying bugs from getting stuck in the paint and thus leaving a bump, Roger and I got working. Using sponge brushes we worked on our respective sides and quickly finished.
The paint didn’t dry as fast as the primer (thankfully) so by the time we finished, even my side looked really smooth and gleaming. After a final inspection, Roger said it would only need one more coat. I was happy to hear that, as even one additional coat adds unwanted weight to a canoe. The gleaming blue canoe was a sight to behold… almost brought tears of joy to my eyes. OK… would you settle for bringing the lyrics from the song ‘Blue Canoe’ (by Blue Mountain) to memory? (That’s only because Ron, at work, recently sent me the link to the song). Roger offered for he and Doug to do the final coat before I returned, promising that it would look really great. I agreed, as I am getting quite anxious to complete the project before Christmas (and also because I remembered how rough my primer painting had ended up). Better to ensure the final finish would really sparkle.
The rest of the day was spent having a seat myself and making great progress on re-caning the canoe seats, which does take a long time to do. We used pre-cut caning from the rattan plant.
After soaking them in water, Roger showed me how to re-cane at each step along the way. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, and I found it really therapeutic.
By the time I left I was very pleased to see how much I had accomplished. It was great to learn, and add re-caning to my growing list of new skills on this project. It’s much like weaving to some extent, especially when you do the diagonal caning.
The time to leave came too soon for me, so I was sad to have to go again. I was, once again, looking at close to another week before I could return. Until next time…
Crux Books 