First, one very good reason why Greece is broke. In word -- no one knows what they are doing!!

I'll try to keep this part short. I went to check in yesterday and went to the Port Authority who told me I had to go to the police. I walked across town to the police station only to learn the guy I need to talk to is only there from 10-11 a.m. Ohhhhhh-kay! So I returned today at the appointed time and the guy (who spoke very little english) kept saying "No stamp. Port Authority."

So off I got back to my buddy at the Port Authority. I tell him what is going down, he calls the police, talks at length, then hangs up. He then stamps my paper he had me fill out earlier and tells me he has to fax it to police. (I figured out later, this ya-hoo is either new to the job or his elevator isn't reaching the top floor!!)

Anyway, he tells me to go to customs next. I walk some more over to Customs, try the locked door, knock on it a few times, and then walk back to my Port Authority buddy to tell him he can stick a fork in it -- I am done with checking in!! I have been at it for 2 days now and have better things to do with my time.

So I head back to the boat for haulout. I back into the slip and the travel lift hauls us out without any incident. He then proceeds to pressure wash the crap off the bottom. With all the barnacles, he also gets about 50% of the top layer of paint. This layer -- the blue layer -- never really cured. I painted both the red coat and the blue coat in 35 deg. weather in Dec. in Newport, RI last year and, well, those aren't what we call 'ideal' painting conditions!

He then takes the boat over to park it in a sling and this is where things get interesting. First, he is operating the 60-ton travel lift from a remote slung around his shoulder. Quite interesting. I am a little skeptical cuz there have been rumors of this guy damaging boats (which were later refuted by a local Brit resident here).

Anyway, he gets the boat situated in the sling and Will climbs aboard and notices the center floorboard in the salon is lifted up above the floor! I show the guy and tell him what I want him to do (in sign language, mostly) and he proceeds to lift the boat up and reposition the supports.

Well, to make this long story short(er), we still have the floorboard about 1/4" above the floorboard! He has the weight too far aft and I think it is forcing the aft part of the keel to flex the hull. Whatever is going on, it isn't good. So I have new motivation to get the work done and get splashed!!

We hauled out today. I am going to blog about it. This ain't Kansas, Dorothy! The first time the aft, center floorboard was up about an inch above the floor. I asked him to reposition the boat and he got it down to a 1/4". Basically the boat is sitting way aft on its keel. Not good on the keel and stringers, I don't think. Ruth thinks (and I agree) that the boat has a slight list to port as well. So I am motivated to get to work!! The rest of the launch went well enough. He pressure washed the bottom and got most of the crud and a good chunk of my blue coat off.

When he was done, Will and I got to work. I had a seized ball valve in the forward head I wanted to fix. So we looked at that first in case we had to order something from tim-buck-three. (This town has zilch!) I thought I was going to have to replace the through hull, In hindsight, I don't know why. Maybe cuz I have never torn into one. Anyhow, it turns out the thru-hull is fine, but the ball valve attached to the thru hull is seized. So I sawed off the handle and spun the valve off. It was much quicker and easier than I anticipated.

After that I got into the "messy work" -- prepping the surface. In this case it meant taking some 80 grit wet-and-dry to that blue coat of paint. By the end of the day I had gotten all the hull done. I have some "touch up" sanding to do tomorrow, but otherwise, all 90 linear feet is done!!! I was covered head to toe in blue!! Fortunately, it all went down the shower drain and I can no longer audition for the Blue Man Group...at least au naturel! (If that was more information than you needed to know, sorry!!)

So tomorrow I hope to wipe the hull down with acetone and then spot prime in advance of doing the big paint. We'll see. We are getting replenished from our delivery here and are starting to feel halfway normal again. Of course, we are still going to bed early!!