Monday morning, 17 March. Wish we were in Boston! Instead we are still in the marina sanding. The blasting probably removed more than 90% of the bottom paint. It took them about 8 hours. Deb & I have been removing the remaining 10%. It has taken us 2 ½ days. We are almost there. The only thing left to sand is a small ridge right where the keel meets the hull. I cannot get at it with the power sander so Deb has been doing it by hand. (The little palm sander she was using died completely. Thankfully I still have the 6" random orbital one.) At the end of the day yesterday, I mixed up the magic marine bondo and filled all the blisters and dings. It works pretty much like automotive bond except that at these temps, you have at most 10 minutes from mix to hard. Needless to say, I mixed SMALL batches. So far I haven't wasted any by being too slow. I think I got everything except the keel Deb was sanding on. I'm sure I'll find a couple more spots this morning. After I finish that and sand down all the repairs, it is time for epoxy primer. This is an optional step that we chose to do because of the porous appearance of the gelcoat. I was going to have to coat so many individual areas that I decided to just do the whole thing. It will also give me a chance to time how long each section of the hull takes for when I do the Coppercoat. Once the primer is on, we wait 3 days for it to off-gas before we can do the Coppercoat. I am hoping to get the marina guys to clean, wax, & buff the topsides during those days. I still have to drop the saildrives and replace the diaphragms so there is plenty to do. Tonight at the marina restaurant they are having happy hour all night, green beer, and Guinness Stew. We'll probably go. Sounds like a good idea after a day of work on the boat.