The canoe lives!! I'm still plugging away at it. Today it was only 90 degrees in North Carolina - a vertitable cold spell - so I took the canoe outside for the "final" sanding of the exterior where I would have good light.

I've got a real love/hate thing going with Vaclav's technique of scribbling all over the boat with a magic marker and then sanding it off. The love part is that it works great! You're left with a really smooth, even surface for the varnish. I'm very pleased with it. The hate part is how much work it is. Even when you think you're starting with a pretty smooth surface, the dificulty of fully eradicating the last of those dang scribbles quickly corrects that false notion.

Anyway, we got almost half of the exterior done today - wet sanding by hand with 60 or 100 grit. 220 still to do, but that should be a quicker job.

My question is about the couple of spots where the sanding revealed fiberglass. I don't *think* I sanded into any glass but I can tell it's there in a handful of small spots. It's mostly near panel seams or where something like the football edge causes a slight rise in the glass.

How can I tell if I sanded into it or not? If I wet it and it disappears, then I didn't? And what difference does it make if I did? It would just be a little weaker? Either way, should I put on any more epoxy, either just on the spots that show glass or the entire thing, or just proceed with the varnish?

Awaiting the wisdom of the experienced ones. :-)

Patsy