As Will points out, tomorrow will be three tens - 10-10-10!!

We hauled the boat out pretty uneventfully yesterday using the marinas huge travel lift. The bottom looked good, which is what I expected since we had just hauled out in Crete 6 months and 3,500 nm ago. After pressure washing the hull and getting all the gunk off, the worker asked me if I wanted some of the 'aguaforte'. I wasn't sure what he meant, so I just shrugged my shoulders in a sort of "uh-huh". The worker then proceeded to squirt this Gatorade-looking mixture out of the bottle and onto the prop and prop shaft. Well, this stuff must've been hydrochloric acid or something because within minutes my prop and shaft were shiny and looking as good as new! I'm gonna find out what that stuff was! It must be on an EPA "top 10" list of some kind!

I then looked at the damage on the rudder. It doesn't look as bad as I feared, which is a good thing. But I have a couple of problems. The biggest is that I don't know what the heck I am doing! That is a pretty formidable problem. I'll explain that later. First, the littler problem is that while Palma de Mallorca I scored all the paint supplies I would need to make the repair.

Well, almost all the supplies. Turns out I need a barrier coat and I don't have any. Barrier coat is a paint you put on to block osmosis of water into the rudder. Anti-fouling is not a barrier coat and over time water can migrate in if a barrier coat isn't first applied. So without a barrier coat, the damaged area could, over time, allow water to migrate in.

Now, the bigger problem. When I was in Newport, RI painting my brand new rudder I didn't know (or at least think) about any of this. I just painted on several coats of anti-fouling and never gave a second thought to a barrier coat! So that means none of the rudder has a barrier coat and if I want it to have one then I will have to sand all the anti-fouling off, apply the barrier coat, and then add several coats of anti-fouling.

When I figured out how much (more) work I created for myself I was fit to be tied. But not a lot I can do about it now. But to make matters worse, is that there isn't any barrier coat paint in Morocco - at least not in Smir. So I am going to have to save that task for another haul out. I think the rudder will be fine for a year or two while I wait to haul again. But long-term it probably needs to be done. See? That's what happens when you don't know what the heck you are doing and are learning seat-of-the-pants. If only I had thought to take a moment and surf Al Gore's World Wide Web for some answers! Grrrr! Hindsight can be an unfriendly host!

The zincs were worn much more than I figured after just 6 months. At least, that is my take on it. So I am going to get on a forum and ask about it. When we installed the single sideband radio we went over the top when installing copper foil for the ground plane. I learned (later, again!!) that too much of this good thing could lead to electrolysis issues. So I am wondering if maybe my copper foil is causing the zincs to get eaten alive.

We made reservations for two nights in a B&B in Chefchaouen in the interior of Morocco for next weekend. It is supposed to be a very nice, non-tourist town that is highly rated. Aside from that, it looks like this haul out won't take as long as I originally thought, so maybe we will take a day trip to another town, Tetouan, that a local recommended for us Americanos.

The primary language of Morocco is Arabic. The second language is Spanish, then French, then English. So once again we are at a bit of a disadvantage. Fortunately, my Spanish is good enough to get us out of (or into) trouble, so we can survive well enough. The currency is the dirham ,which I was pronouncing 'dur-hem' but which I learned is pronounced 'deer-ham'. It is roughly at 10 dirhams to the euro. The euro has slid back up to $1.37 USD/euro, so that is a bummer. Time to leave the Med, I guess!!

In other news, all of the crew is confirmed for the ARC - Andy, Elise, and David (along with Will and I). They will be flying into Gibraltar at the end of the month and then we will leave Nov. 1 (weather permitting) for the Canaries. It is about 700 nm, so I am figuring on about 5 days. It will give the new crew a chance to shake the boat down and help us all get into a groove. I will dedicate a blog to each crew member, but after I have had a chance to meet them in person.

Meanwhile, I guess Time Warp will hang out in the Morocco/Gibraltar area and explore around here. We got here early just to be on the safe side. If I had to do it over again, I would do it the same way. It looks like we have a week or so extra to kill so maybe we can check out Ceuta, Spain and maybe go for some day sails. Dunno.