The Long Haul (out) Continued

We returned to work on Anima (after spending a full-on week travelling with relatives through Malaysia overland) refreshed and full of renewed enthusiasm - we will get this done! Rene arrived before me as I had a job interview in Singapore. While he worked in the hot sun sanding the decks, I caught up with friends and made new ones. My interview went well - the strangest part for me was having to perform it barefoot! The preschool doesn't allow anyone to wear their outside shoes inside!

***After a month of trying to get an answer from the school's HR department regarding my payment package, I sent an email with an ultimatum: let me know your answer by Friday or I'll have to look elsewhere. The answer came back within a few hours. The job is on hold. I would have loved to have tried out being a preschool teacher, especially because the class size was only 8 children (very different to the 6 x 25-30 per day that I had in Australia).
I'm disappointed that I was led to believe the job was mine for so long. I could have saved money and not flown to Singapore for the interview. Now we are back to square one - sort of - trying to figure out our next move. More on that later.

I took the overnight bus from Singapore to Lumut and despite being woken countless times with lights on, random stops and too-cold aircon, I arrived in one piece. I set straight to work with Rene on the boat for a few days. We hit a new milestone when instead of painting Jotamastic 87 over bare steel, we moved on to the second coat - Penguard. This 2 part paint is toxic stuff. I felt my eyelashes curling from the fumes and after a few attempts at helping, Rene decided that it was too dangerous for me. He insisted on doing it all himself to save me from damaging my ovaries with the toxicity!! 

Rene painting and painting and painting

My job became chief taper. I've used up over a dozen rolls of masking tape so far, taping off the edges of paint areas, taping over things that don't require paint, re-taping these things after it rains and the tape glue disintegrates. Rene has been working like a demon, often until 8pm to try and get Anima painted so we can move on. 

So much taping!

We worked full-time for a week on Anima and progressed from sanding / painting over bare steel with Jotamastic 87, to painting the second coat of Penguard - and, in some areas, the final coat of Hardtop A.S.

Rene goes a little troppo.. paint fumes?

Rene:
Dealing with the rust spots has been a little bit like shaking dandruff from the hair - no matter how hard you try, there's always a few more. For the major spots, ie at least 2 cm x 1cm and deep, we used a technique handed down by my dad - a kind of 'band-aid' of tissue, soaked in pool acid (HCl or Hydrocloric Acid) with plastic to keep the fumes from evaporating, and tape on the edges to hold it in place. Left overnight, this will eat away at the rust significantly, cleaning out the small pores that are so hard to get at.

A cheeky rust spot

Rene inspects his rust-removal acid technique

The work continues! So much still to do but we're getting excited about sailing to Thailand next to enjoy Anima for a little before getting serious with work / life etc.

Anima waiting to return to the water