So, I kind of forgot about the blog for the last month or so. A lot of stuff has happened, so I'll try to cover it all. The haul-out went really well, with no major surprises. We painted the bottom, replaced a through-hull (actually, we had the yard do that because it was for sewage discharge and absolutely disgusting), re-bedded some underwater hardware, replaced the zincs, and sanded/painted the props. By the way, the propellers are immense. That little plastic bag in the first picture is actually about the size of a piece of standard printer paper. The only slight bit of unpleasantness was some pitting on the props, probably caused by electrolysis. Propellers this big are ridiculously expensive, so we just kind of ignored the pitting and put on a really good coat of prop-paint.
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| Propeller |
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| Pitting |
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| Freshly Painted Bottom and Prop |
While the boat was hauled out, I took the opportunity to cut out the cracked and leaky seam compound on the planks near the waterline and replace it with new stuff. This went fairly quickly, and should prevent plank form rotting out too fast. After the compound got of dry, I put a fresh coat of paint on below the rub-rail. We promptly put a big scratch in it when we docked the boat after the launch.
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| New Seam Compound |
We got our new back deck roof-deck-thing installed, replacing the redneck 2x4 and chipboard addition that had been grafted after some adventures with a broken crane some last-minute sawzall surgery, the new deck was installed. Thanks to our neighbors and owners of Kingfisher Craftsman for the pretty new boat piece! The new deck extends further back to protect the transom, and is raised a few inches to protect my dad's head.
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| Misogi With a Naked Boat |
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| Chris Helping to Lower the New Deck Into Place |
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| New Deck painted and Pretty. |
We also got some proper boating in with a trip to Vendovi Island on Thumper. Vendovi is a beautiful little island just south of Lummi. It just recently came under the ownership of the San Juan Preservation trust after being private for a good century or two, and is open to day use only. This means that it is seldom visited and remarkably un-trampled. Vendovi still has all the old homesteading equipment leftover from the previous owners, as well as beautiful views, neat plants, and very clean water. Plus, it's only 45 minutes away with Thumper.
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| Vendovi |
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| More Vendovi |
Thumper, by the way, confirmed that her name was the right choice on when the wind picked the return trip. Right after the picture below was taken, a decent chop came up, and Thumper's light, flat-ish bottomed slammed across the waves like a soda can blown over gravel by a hurricane. It was not particularly comfortable, but the boat and our kidneys made it back to the harbor without too much damage.
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| Heading Home |
I've also been making steady progress with m sailboat; stripping out and painting the interior and replacing some of the rigging. I got a new turquoise sail cover as well, which does a great job of making the boat look a bit less derelict.
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| New Paint in My Sailboat |
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| New Sailcover |
I've also become a professional shipwright! Well, not really, but our neighbor paid me to patch a big rot spot in his bulwarks, and I think my patch came out very well. You can't even see the where the old stuff ends and the stuff I put in begins. I need money to support fixing and cruising the sailboat this summer, so if anyone needs some work done on their boat don't hesitate to give me call (360-714-0060). I can't quite do real professional-quality work yet, but I also don;t charge real professional prices...
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| Dutchman |
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| Fairing Compound |
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| Good as New! |
