Teak Work

So, left on the dock with a beautifully dry weekend... Started another project, the teak. This is a good time of year in FL to do wood work, it's relatively dry and sunny.
Based on the number of projects left undone and the starting of this new project, I decided the astrologist that did my chart reading is correct in that I'm good at starting projects, but not so much in finishing... ;)
After two days of sanding sanding sanding sanding sanding... I've decided that teak truly is tough stuff. Hours and hours I've been sanding. I'm still working on just one piece of wood in the cockpit, starboard side (pics bottom left, and right). I had started doing both (pic on top left is port side and shows pre sanding and some post sanding), but soon realized both were not going to get done in one weekend. The wood on Athena has, unfortunately, been left to the elements for far too long. The grains of wood are quite worn and it's taking quite a bit of sanding to smooth them all out. After much debate, oil or varnish surfacing, I've decided to go with varnishing... which means, if I want it to look really super sweet smooth like glass, working at getting those grains smooth.
The pic on the bottom left shows the tools I've been using so far for the job, mouse sander, circle sander, and shop vac. Also lots of personal muscle hand sanding, not to mention the wear and tear these machine sanders take on the hands, and the wear and tear on me back! My age is showing every time I try to stand up after.
One of my neighbors gave me some great advice though, when I was feeling like I'll never get it done...

He said, "you can only eat an elephant piece by piece."
What a great "piece" of advice. Keeping that in mind keeps me motivated. I will be able to eat the elephant (finish the teak work) piece by piece, each piece being a goal of its own right.