October 3: Boat Repairs

High today here in Baltimore: forecast to be 62 - this morning it was 47 degrees. It really MUST be time to move south! One of these days ....

So last week while we were away, the bottom damage from the stump was being repaired and since the boat was being pulled anyway we thought it was a good time to have the sides of the hull repainted. This was one of those jobs that we did 4 years again and decided it was not a job that we wanted to do again. One statement my dad made a lot that we have taken to heart: "When you reach a point in life that you can afford to hire someone, then you should do that in order to provide a job for someone else." So we did! Dave (sailboat friend) took pictures for us - thanks, Dave!!

First: paint the hull with a very thin film of I'm not sure what. Then sand until the blue is gone. This lets you know what has been sanded and what hasn't. We thought this was a great idea. Next, mask any wood.

Last step: paint with Brightside (I think they ended up putting 3 coats on) by rolling the paint on and then tipping with a brush (same method we had used). Job done - it looks really nice and now the mustache should be gone for quite a while! (3rd picture is before in case you can't tell)

The bottom looked just as good when they finished The color of the antifouling paint didn't match but it's under the water so it just doesn't matter :-) Most of the stump damage was caused the by lag bolt which was screwed into the top of the stump - probably at one time it had a line and buoy attached to mark the position of the stump. Too bad the buoy wasn't still there when we went by!

So it's back to the routine of physical therapy 3 mornings a week. Ft. McHenry is on the plans for tomorrow as Steve is feeling better each day. And he doesn't have to wear the sling anymore (unless in a crowd) so that makes it nicer as well. Plus he's back to cooking!!! How happy am I?!