Until I wrote the Subject LIne of this email... I never thought about the old sailors superstition... about "never start a journey on a Friday".... HUMMMM
WELL... this is not really a "start" either... more of an interruption of an on-going journey.... BUT still..
WE'RE still here; ON Land; and still doing projects...

The story on the delay of using the travel-lift to get the AB back in the water is sort of TWISTED.... But I'll simplify a bit... There was a Canadian, Three-story, Power boat secured to the dock, right in back of Brian and Sheila's "Moonshadow".... Ostensibly, this boat WAS on the hard, for a short bit of time, here at Westland Marina... After it's launch a month or so ago... the boat developed a substantial leak... It appeared to be coming from the KEEL area.... (remember this is a power boat with two very long drive shafts, and HUGE propellers sticking down BELOW the keel) !!!!

Anyway.... the bilge pumps ran almost continuously.... and surveyors, and mechanics were all of this boat.... The Owner was BLAMING the Westland YARD for "blocking damage".... Rick (yard manager) was saying "no way!!!".... The argument continued for quite a while... even spanning a "free" haulout, and re-launch....... the boat continued to leak....
ONLY after some lengthy time....Did the owner of the boat ADMIT... that BEFORE he brought the boat to WESTLAND... he had work done on the keel.... (Summary: HE had someone literally DRILL a hole in the bottom of the KEEL "to let some water OUT"....!!!! We always JOKE about doing this on other people's boats... but here it was... staring at us.... Someone had done it!!!

the sum and substance was that whoever patched this "HOLE" did not do a seaman-like JOB.... This was the reason that Rick (yard Mng'r) told us that the travel-lift would be busy until Monday OR Tuesday of next week. The travel lift was the only way the boat could be lifted HIGH-enough to effectively work underneath.... at the bottom of the keel (and IN-BETWEEN) THE SHAFTS).

So... I was going about my Friday... Not even considering a launch.... (Painting beneath the original jack stand locations, etc. ) I was shocked to see the Travel-LIFT moving, in that the mechanic had just patched the keel on that boat... hours before... and then Bob (from the yard) came by it... and "splashed" some black bottom paint on the patched area....

THEN, Rick came by, and asked if we wanted to splash the AB in a hurry..
We had already arranged to go to the store with Brian and Sheila... plus continue with some small projects...
(as I said... never really thought about the "old sailors superstition"....)

We got to talking (Rick and I).... The YARD really wants this Canadian "GONE"... is what I took I away from the conversation....

This morning... while I was walking around the AB... I met a fellow cruiser, named KEN, and we struck up a conversation... The end result was I was given a 44" piece of thick wall SS tubing, that I Plan to use as an additional brace for the Solar Stik.... on the aft deck... Ken and John had re-claimed this SS from an old catamaran that was being dismantled, and put in a dumpster...

OK.... got to RUN.... Paint awaits!!! I also discovered a corrosion problem with our AM/FM/ CD Player yesterday... So a re-powering of that device is required..