The weekend came, and with the delay in the prop shaft, I decided to put the bottom paint on. It is really cold here, but both the mfr. and the yard say it is OK to put the paint on in cold weather -- it just takes longer to dry.

And who called it painting anyhow? I mean, what a misnomer. You spend 90% of your time do the surface prep, and then spread a little magic on the surface. They should have called it 'surface preparation' cuz that is what it is and that is what takes so much energy!

So I rented a vacuum sander for 3 hours of hell and proceeded to do the full 45' (or 90' if you count both sides!!) by myself. Man that was hard! The sander got heavier and heavier as time went on. And since I couldn't put as much effort in at the end cuz I was so tired, I was changing sandpaper more often!

Then I had to wipe the hull down with this thinner before painting. But I finally got the first coat (red) on and it all looks great. The second coat will be blue. That way, if I start to see red I will know it is time to paint again.

Tomorrow I am going to take part of the day off and relax. I'll go to the boat to finish up the tabbing grinding from yesterday (another dirty job) and fiddle with a couple of smaller projects, then call it a day and give my (tired) body a rest.

I made 2 flight reservations today. One to return home -- on Monday, the 22nd -- to spend Christmas with family and friends. The other one is for Will & I to fly back on Sat., the 27th, to finish fitting the boat out and do the delivery.

Hopefully we'll get some help. Jerry & Laura have volunteered, and Jeremy looks ready to go. So it will be a fun, but cold trip. At least this time we have a dodger and bimini to help keep us out of the weather..