Woo Hoo! I started working on the kayak again! I began the session by planing the high spots off of the deck. While a block plane worked well on the hull, I found that the spokeshave was the tool for the job on the deck. After that, a session with the sander was in order. I've still got more to do, but I think I'll fill some gaps first. All photos, including this shot, were taken at the end of the day. You can see how, after some minimal planing and sanding, the area where the two different woods meet is looking all right.

Similar shot as above, only from the back.

A shot of the cockpit area. Note that I now believe that I made a mistake here. If you're making your own boat, I'd recommend that you not build up the coaming until after you've fiberglassed the deck. That 90 degree angle will be a thorn in my flesh when it comes time to fiberglass this. It is already causing problems trying to sand the smaller portions of the cockpit recess. However, despite all of that, the area where the two types of wood meet is looking all right.

Here's a closer shot of the back of the cockpit. Here you can see more the problems I'm having. The dried glue (particularly the hot-melt) is just a pain to get out of that joint. I think that when it comes time to do the fillet (that is, fill the joint with a putty-like fiberglass mix turning it into a curve, sort of like caulking it) I may just not even worry about the extra glue and fillet over the top of it. We'll see.

And here's a view of the cockpit from the side. I apologize for the hotspot there, but this is the best photo I had. You can see the quite small (half-inch?) recess area that is problematic to sand. I'm tempted to buy a detail sander, but that's 50 bucks to just deal with this one problem. There are other ways to deal with this problem.

Lastly, a shot of the boat from the rear. The back end is really going to be cool; especially once I get some resin applied. I think it'll darken up nicely (like the dark strip on the hull) and it will be quite nice.