February 4-17, 2023 Boat yard projects and a few adventures

 2-4 When we arrived at the boat yard, they had already put our boat on shore right next to the haul out bay.  Not a great place.  We’ll get flying debris every time they clean another boat.  And people are always hanging about wanting to visit.  Slows down our projects.  Dave learned to make his stories even more boring than their stories.  That way they would leave.  We’ll try to get them to move us before we paint the bottom.

Boat projects
Dave started with buffing and waxing the hull.  He had to hold a buffer for several hours.  Needless to say, he had to take several breaks.  His arms weren’t too happy.  It was interesting finding a power source that looked safe to use.

The hull was power washed but Dave sanded the entire hull that was to be painted to remove any barnacle attachments.  

 

 

The bottom of the keel had to have material added to the surface before painting it because bare metal was exposed.  Dave used 2 styles of wire brushes and a grinder to remove rust and loose paint, and loose fiberglass.  Then he used Ospho (phosphoric acid) on the surface to combine with any remaining rust and made a protective layer.  Then he had to let it dry overnight.  He added a second layer of Ospho and waited another day.  Then he had to sand the surface and use acetone to clean the surface to add an epoxy layer.  He placed multiple layers of epoxy using a wire brush to get into any pockets.  It then had to be washed and cleaned with acetone before painting the surface.

2-7 Tuesday.  I drove to Brunswick to pick up Pete to spend his day off with us.  
2-8 Wednesday Pete and I drove to Yulee, FL, just south of the Fl/GA border.  We shopped, then came back to have dinner with Dave, after which, I drove Pete back to Brunswick.  It’s about an hour round trip.  It was nice to have him spend more time with us before we leave for the Bahamas.

My brother, Don, had a successful surgery to remove his bladder at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  He had an aggressive bladder cancer and had chemo therapy for about 3 months before removing his bladder.  

Continuation of boat projects

Recaulked the shaft tube to the prop.  Had been a source of a leak in the past.

Dave resealed the teak toe rail that runs the full length of the boat.  He had removed the majority of the caulking.  I went after him with a knife to do the fine cleaning.  Then he placed new caulk the whole length of the 43 foot boat on the port and starboard sides.  

We decided to replace the vinyl lettering for our home port, Rapid City, on the stern.  So we also decided to replace the Beneteau lettering and the green boot stripe.   I called the sign company in Wilmington, North Carolina that made our last letters in 2015.  They still had us in their records!  We gave them our order and they shipped everything to us at the boatyard.  That added the job of removing the name and boot stripes.

2-17  We had a couple friends over to our VRBO for dinner.  We had met Becky, Rob and Steve in Brunswick.  But they had their boats in the boat yard with us.  Fun night of margarita, beer and tacos. 

Me, Dave, Becky, Rob, Steve

beautiful sunset with our boat next to the haul out bay