Bill
05/07/2012, Annapolis, MD

Things are really moving along now. Today the boat was hauled out of the water in Annapolis so we can paint the bottom, finish installing some equipment, and have an insurance survey (inspection). Here is a short movie of the haul-out.



On Sunday we moved the boat from our marina to Annapolis and got first in line for Monday morning. We still didn't get taken out until around 11am. The big thing we were concerned about was how our bottom paint held up. It had been three years since we were last out and the paint did great. The only place where there were any barnacles was in a few spots where the paint had worn off. The paint, called Super Shipbottom, is over 60% copper and costs about $140 a gallon. The copper prevents any serious sea life from attaching to the boat. There was still some slime and soft growth. That is easily removed with a sponge and diving on the boat. The other good news was that we talked to the paint company and we don't have to sand the bottom before repainting. Donna is real happy about that since she is the one who usually does the hard work of sanding. Now we have to really get to work. Today was the first day of Donna's retirement. There will be no rest and relaxation just yet. Our goal is to be back in the water in two weeks. Our take-off date is likely going to be in early June, about 10 days later than we had originally hoped.

Boat	Comments [1]

Bill
04/12/2012, Annapolis, MD

We are finally making some progress on getting the boat ready to go. The above pictures are a before and after of the cabinets we had to remove to replace the chainplates. They went back almost perfectly. The installation of the watermaker (that converts salt water to fresh drinking water) is nearly done. I have been working on that every day for a couple of weeks. We decided to wait a couple of more weeks before we have the boat hauled out.

On the home front, our house is now listed as being for rent. It's been listed for two days and we have already had three people look at it. It's available on June 1st so we have no choice but to be ready to leave by then. I'm sure we will be ready enough to go by then.

Boat	Comments [1]

Bill
04/02/2012, Annapolis, MD

We took a little step on Sunday but it feels more like cruising. We had to be out of our regular slip by April 1st. We are now tied up to the dock in our marina about 50 feet from our slip. It just feels more like cruising since we will almost never stay in a slip once we leave on our trip.

The cabinets are almost done and the watermaker install is slowly making progress. We get hauled out next Monday so we are going to move the boat on Easter Sunday to get it in place for the haul-out.

Boat	Comments [1]