Well... As much fun as the cruising lifestyle is, you occasionally do have to work. Its been about 20 months since Norma was hauled out for new bottom paint and general hull maintenance.

On Monday morning, Bill, the travel lift operator at Harbortown Marina and Boatyard, expertly lifted Norma out of the water and placed her on jack stands in a work bay in the boat yard. They were nice enough to allow me to do my own work and to stay on board while doing so. The good news... no hotel room expense. The bad news... I get to live in a tree house for four days.

Monday I got the bottom prepped and put on the first coat of anti-fouling paint. (I even managed to get some of it on the boat.) One nice thing about working under the boat is that, if you time it right, you can work more or less in the shade. As you can imagine, shade is a little hard to come by in a boat yard.

That night, I discovered that the railroad track that runs about 100 feet off the stern of my "tree-house" is very busy at night. Remember the exhcange between Jake and Elwood in the movie "The Blues Brothers?"

Jake: "How often do the trains go by?"

Elwood: "So often that you hardly notice."

Here's another "before" picture of Norma just after being hauled.