Adventures of Luck of a Fool: July 28, 2014 Haul out

Shelly, who is busy sewing our cushions, invited us over for lunch. But we wanted to concentrate on getting the boat ready for our haul out about noon. So she sent her son over with some warm home made bread right about the time I was going to start making French toast. But this was better! I think she is one of those people that fit the saying “if you want something done, ask a busy person.”

The boat yard plans their haul outs around “slack tide”, that is right after a high or low tide while the water is shifting directions. That is when there is the least effect from current (since we are on a river). So about 12:15 we took our boat over to the channel for the haul out. They wanted us to back into the channel. So Dave had to take the river current, the tidal current and the wind into consideration for backing in. He started with the bow heading upstream, but the wind would move the bow, so we circled around and had the bow pointing downstream and backed in like a pro.

They tied the boat so it was centered in the channel. Then this huge lift wheeled out over our boat and they positioned two large straps under the belly of the boat. We had them place the straps according to the directions in our manual. It has to do with where the keel is and how the weight is distributed. Then they brought a ladder down to our boat so we could get off the boat. Next they lifted the 24,000 pound boat up in the air, rolled this whole thing back over the land and let our boat hover over a tarp on the ground. It’s kind of scary watching this whole thing.

Then our insurance surveyor and the boat yard representative both looked over the hull. Dave checked all the through hulls for barnacles by running a long screw driver up them. Then he greased each through hull with a brush. The straps holding the boat in the air were actually covering some of the through hulls. So we looked at where the best place would be to place the straps next time and marked the side of the boat with a wax crayon. We’ll also change it in our manual. Dave greased the prop and cleaned it off with a wire brush. The smoother it is, the better it will run. We found a blister in the paint on the keel and rust on the bottom of keel. So we decided we will have them paint it here while the repairs are being done. It will go back in the water today, and we will plan the best time for the painting to be done.

When we pull the boat our for painting, we will change the zincs on the prop. It was amazing to see how much they had been eaten away in just 2.5 weeks. We had scoops/screens placed over our engine and air conditioning raw water intakes to keep fish and sticks out of it back in Mobile bay last October. One of them was barely being held on by one screw. So we will have that repaired. And we decided to add a central hull zinc rather than bond all of our through hulls together. That was the suggestion of the surveyor. Then we will watch the through hulls internally for any corrosion and repair as needed. Hopefully that will stop the current leakage that is eating our zincs so fast. I had a whole new appreciation for looking at the hull than I did a year ago when we bought the boat.

They put the boat back in by 2:30. We took it back to our “temporary” spot on the end of a dock. Then at the next slack tide, about 5:00, we’ll move it to a slip.

Dave and I headed to a restaurant with air conditioning for a late lunch and to talk through all that happened today. We wanted to get everything down on paper while it was still fresh in our heads.

When we returned and planned to move the boat, a thunderstorm was moving in. So we hooked up our power again and spent the night there. There were a few simultaneous thunder/lightning combos that had us both wondering what was going to go next. I think we’ll feel that way for awhile.