Today is the day. After a year of procrastination. Today is the day to cut the hatches. I figured a rounded corner would both look better and be easier to cut, so I used a nearly-empty roll of tape to provide a decent round to each corner.

The back hatch with rounded corners.

The all-important jig saw blade. I went back and forth. I actually bought some 1/16th inch drill bits as I'd thought it would be ok to drill some holes and use that instead of plunge-cutting. I was pretty freaked about the idea of plunge-cutting into my pristine deck. But today I decided that I'd try the plunge cutting first, and if it just seemed like it was going to mess things up, I'd revert to drilling as "Plan B". Swallowing my pride, I put the blade into my jigsaw, plugged it in, put on eye protection and some ear protection, and hoped for the best.

AND IT WORKED! I popped the jigsaw on its highest speed, lined things up, held my breath, and slowly plunged the blade down. It plunged into the 'glass like butter. Ok, not quite like butter, but there wasn't near the chatter that I thought there would be. Here's the hole from the first plunge.

As I cut around, I used duct tape to hold the hatch in place. This prevented the hatch from prematurely dropping and also from pinching the kerf.

Voila! The front hatch is cut. And it even looks symmetrical. Bonus.

And the back hatch. It as well appears to be symmetrical.

The front hatch cover and hatch hole.

The front hatch cover.

The rear hatch cover and hatch hole.

The rear hatch cover.