Please pardon this interruption of our regularly posted blog. First let me give a little background. Before we left Canada in the summer of '14, we had the bottom soda blasted down to gelcoat to get all the years of built up paint off. This ensured we were starting with a clean slate. We had new barrier coat put on, then we put on 4 coats of Micron CSC (see http://www.sailblogs.com/member/lequesteau/325944). We were hoping this would last us at least 2-3 years. It didn't.

On our travels we talked with several other cruisers and decided we were going to use a fairly new product called CopperCoat. This, if applied correctly, will last up to 10 years. This has so many pluses! Imagine no bottom sanding or painting for 10 years!!! And yes, you can haul and relaunch without repainting. We picked up all the stuff we needed, 12X1L kits of CopperCoat and 4L of Ameracoat. Both part A and B in St Martin (no tax and no duty) at Time Out Boat Yard (TOBY) on the French side. We were advised to get the small 4" lint free rollers, handles, trays and a couple of mixing pots. Good advice, almost.

We were hauled out at Clarks Court Boat Yard where they power washed the bottom. We told the guys they didn't need to be careful with the bottom paint. They changed their nozzles and blasted away so what was left was what we had to deal with. We brought out the generator and sanders and started the bottom. Our plan was to sand off only the bottom paint but leave the barrier coat. We figured it was only two years old and still in pretty good condition. It took us 5 days and the replacement of our 2 year old Black and Decker 5" orbital sander. It literally flew apart half way through the job. Fortunately our friend, Steve on Slow Flight, loaned us his sander and I went to Ace Hardware to get a new one, which of course had the European power requirements. Crap! On the 6th day we moved the stands completed the task. What a horrible mess we were during this process. The guys in the yard started calling us Smurf and Mama Smurf. Once finished, we left Grenada hoping that by leaving the boat for 3 months the bottom would dry out thoroughly and be ready for painting upon our return. To be continued.