Hello to all.  It has been a long time since we have written but we have been busy.  It was decided that the boat needed some much needed work on the decks and so for the last 4 weeks we have been working away.  The decks are Teak laid on top of plywood and the teak was in bad shape not to mention that every time it rained we had to run around and lay out towels and open drawers.  The old idea on traditional decks is that you have to pour buckets of saltwater on the decks every day to keep them swollen up and then it doesn’t leak “as bad”.  After 10 years of leaky decks I felt that it would be a good idea to pull the teak and lay down new plywood then fiberglass over it and paint and non-skid the decks.  If in the future teak would be put back on, it would go over the glassed decking and be completely water proof.  The first thing was to find someone to help me with the project.  At first I talked to a few people but they didn’t make me feel comfortable with their skill level as  I wanted just myself and one other person to tackle the job.  Finally I decided on a Shipwright named Warwick.  After talking with him it was apparent that he may cost twice as much as the other guys but he was without a doubt the man for the job.  The fear of pulling up your decking and seeing what problems may be lurking below is not an easy thing, so experience outweighed any thoughts of saving a few bucks.  It wasn’t long before I realized how right I was.  After pulling the teak we had found some rot and had to keep pulling through the old plywood.  It was discovered that some of the framing and deck beams needed to be addressed.  It was not too bad but Warwick said that it was good we caught it when we did.  So we spent a few weeks digging and patching and then replacing plywood before  putting the final layer on this past week.  Now we just have to glass and paint.  Warwick cuts no corners and that makes the project run a little longer than normal but that is fine with me.  All the plywood edges had to be scarf jointed or cut on an angle instead of just butting them together when you lay them down and it takes a while to do all the edges and get them the line up perfectly but that is how to do it right.  A boat like the Wayward is in my opinion something that should be taken care of not just for yourself but for the next owner and the next owner and if cared for properly a wooden boat can last for hundreds of years.  It is all about replacing the bad wood with good.  So anyways it has been a learning experience and it should wrap up soon then on to Fiji.  We are hoping to get out of here by the end of May and then 1000 miles to Fiji.  It has been so nice to live here in Auckland but the time has come.

AP