Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009 - Eos is hauled and sitting very comfortably on her own piece of dirt at Shumway's. They hauled her yesterday and it was more than just a simple haul out since their travel lift can certainly handle her weight but it wasn't as tall as the one at Barker's. Their buildings and doors aren't as high so their travel lift is shorter in order to move boats into the building. They started to haul her stern first and then realized after lifting her up to ground level they wouldn't be able to get the travel lift off. The arch was in the way at the stern and the mast was in the way forward. SO they put her back in, motored her out into the Genesse River and brought her in bow first so they could just take the forestays off. Because the mast is keel stepped and not deck stepped there wasn't any concern about the mast not being attached forward. They then hauled her out and very gently drove her over to the storage field and blocked her up, re rigged her and settled her in.

This was the first time we could see the damage caused by the rock grounding. The damage to the lead ballast is cosmetic and can be fixed with a hammer and some new bottom paint. The damage to the aft fiberglass portion of the keel is what caused the slow leak. There are two kinds of damage to this section. The very back end of the keel where it tapers aft has some de-lamination of the fiberglass so parts of that section got wet and will have to be dried out and new structure and fiberglass work done. This is not where we think the actual leak into the bilge occurred, however. That is just behind the seam between the lead keel and that aft fiberglass structure. In this area the aft fiberglass structure has been damaged and is dripping water. So it, too, will have to be dried out and the structure re-enforced there so we don't have a problem next time we are grounded. And we are sure we will be grounded again sometime.

The fellow, Tom Frank, who is winterizing the boat and will be fixing the keel is someone we are very comfortable with. Bill spent half of today with Tom as they talked about the problems and Tom discussed how he envisioned them being fixed and it agreed with how Bill thought things should happen. There was a meeting of the minds that was very comforting to Bill and to me as well. Tom has a lot of experience and doesn't see any problem fixing it and will keep us in the loop as things progress. He is also a master wood worker so we are having him put a rub rail on each side of the hull. We couldn't put one on and get the boat out of the barn in Hugo and besides now we know exactly where they need to go on the sides of the boat. Just look at the scrape marks that are there now and just install the rub strake down that line. It is kind of like waiting to see where the students on campus make paths in the grass and then putting the sidewalks there. We now know where she tends to rub on the docks and the pilings so that's where the rub strakes belong.

We have a local canvas worker who is going to see about building us some shade in the cockpit. And there is another fellow who will shrink wrap her for the winter but with an access door so Tom can get on board and do a few things inside for us over the winter lay-up.

Now we can move on to the next months of land cruising. We are off to North Carolina tomorrow and will be there for some time. Bill will have to see if he can adjust without some chemical assistance to having no boat to work on. It will have to be mental work like getting familiar with all of the nuances of the equipment that we have. We are taking manuals with us for study. And we will have plenty of time to plan our more leisurely trip out the seaway next summer.