Tuesday October 30: Back in the Water!!

Painting the primer after first sanding all of the sides.

While I continued working on the inside of the boat, Steve moved on to the next project: painting the cabin sides of the boat. This hadn't been done since we first bought the boat back in 2006.

It was something we really have wanted to get done but a good time/place never really was there. Seemed this was a good time!

Step one: sand all of the surface area on the sides of the cabin from the walkaround deck up.

Step 2: paint a coat of primer for the Brightside one part paint we were going to use.

Painting the cabin sides.

After letting the primer dry for a day, Steve sanded and wiped down the areas that were primed.

Then it was a two person job. I rolled on the paint and Steve 'tipped' the paint with a paint brush. Hence the name: roll and tip!

Works well and the first coat was done.

Cleaning and recoating the prop.

And so were we. I guess I should say I was done. Steve went on to work on the prop.

First wire brushing and then recoating the prop with bottom paint. It seemed to hold up well - keep the barnacles from growing. Probably not the ideal coating for a prop but for our purposes it worked well.

We were back to the boat bright and early today with a scheduled launch time of 10 am.

Ready to be lowered in!

The travel lift was actually there 30 minutes early but we were ready for them! It was supposed to be in the higher 80's today so I think the guys wanted to get an early start.

I don't blame them :-)

It's always fun to watch the boat be launched - no matter how many times we have seen this :-)


Thru hull fitting open: check

Start engine:  check

Water exiting the exhaust: check

Ready to put it in reverse and back away!! This is an engine that hasn't run for 6 months. It's a diesel. I love diesel engines. Turn the key and it starts.

Since it was early yet, we decided the mast might as well go up.

Steve started the process by attaching the stainless steel stays to the top of the mast.

We actually remembered to make sure the mast lights all worked (they did!) before raising the mast. Made that mistake once - try not to repeat our mistakes :-)



Next was for Steve to lift the mast as I pulled on the lines attached to the top of the mast. Once up, I hold the ropes (easy to do!) until Steve attaches the lower ends of the stays where they belong.

How fun to be back in the water!!

We returned to the condo for lunch. I stayed and Steve ended up going back to the boat and putting the second coat of Brightside on the starboard and front side of the cabin.

Did I feel bad that he did it without me? Not even close ....

Tomorrow, finish the port and aft sides and the painting is done.

Canvas to put up and we'll be pretty much ready to go. Probably Friday, maybe Thursday. Doesn't really matter - especially since we'll hardly know what day it is anyway ......