"The severity of the climate having compelled them to batten down and caulk their abiding place."

Here's a raucous attempt at  bonding the fore deck hatch seal gutter in place.  Can you pick out the clamp that is just fooling around?  You got to watch those clamps, before you know it they're clamping themselves all over the place. 

This photo shows a bit more detail about the situation. The white portion is the edge of the deck itself after the foam was hogged out and replaced with a high density mixture of epoxy and micro balloons.  Below that, you can see a thin grey joining line.  This is a 1/8 in strip of divnycell foam that was slather both sides with epoxy and cabosil thickener.  This will lower the inner sealing edge so that a 1/4 inch thick rubber seal can be placed around the under side of the hatch. If it all works out as planned, this rubber seal can depress itself about half way and cause the hatch to sit flush with the surrounding deck when the "hatches be batten'd down". http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/56700.html