Here's Ralph sanding the hull - you can see the nice clean rudder, ready for paint.

All day Wednesday and most of Thursday (after the rain) were spent scraping those barnacle pearls off the hull, rudder, and prop and sanding. Today was also spent sanding and a bit of scraping. Fortunately the rudder was in good condition under all that muck. It sanded down smooth and ready for painting. There's no way we could be this far along if not for our good friend Bob, who is helping with the work. We also discovered a few blisters, which we have cleaned out and filled and we did some fairing on the keel. We are tired of ending every day covered in blue dust! I even had blue streaks in my hair - but they washed out. Today I told Ralph he could join Blue Man Group, or maybe the Smurfs.