Garmin iPad Bluechart app......

with ACTIVE CAPTAIN and GRIB forecasts and Premium weather ($4, needs cell phone access - i.e. within 10+ miles from the coast).

Uses all of the above on my recent short hop on friends Whitby 42 from Marathon to Fort Pierce.  220 miles in 28hrs, motor sailing, but still nice.

Shots are taken in my apartment but you get the general idea.

Aft companionway.......??????????????

TIH is a center cockpit boat and as per the tradition of her era she has a forward and aft companionway.  I can be corrected on this but it seems that modern (i.e. post 1990) center cockpit boats seem to tend towards a single companionway.

To date I have tended to ignore the upper-deck elements of TIH(with the exception of the ports and hatches) but the looming rainy season has gotten me motivated.

TIH companionway hatches are the traditional type, teak on aluminum "U" shaped channels, with a front drop board.  The drop board is held in place by two vertical retaining boards, screwed onto the fiberglass.  All in all this is a functional system, but is prone to leaking.  I don't like having an open hatch facing forward in any type of sea.  I would like to keep the access but am looking for a more elegant and robust solution. 

Aluminum "U" shaped channel

 

Settee continued....

This shows the removable back strip to allow access to the drawers behind. 

Getting a bit better at the wood butchery.

Epoxy fillet.