Out of the marina...into the boat yard

Question: What's wrong with this picture? Answer: No docklines on the dock or pilings. Not that anyone else would notice, but our docklines have hung in this slip for the last nine years, awaiting our return from a daysail or short vacation. But this time we took them with us to use whereever else we might end up.

Since Monday morning we've been on the hard (read: out of the water) to have the boat's bottom painted and to do some maintenance. Fiberglass boats tend to develop osmotic blisters. This occurs when water penetrates the paint and outer gel coat of the hull, and reacts with the resin in the fiberglass layers below. This produces an acid, and may result in a puffy blister-looking spot on the hull. When the boat is out of the water and has dried, the acid leaks from the blister, a handy way to find the troublesome spot! It's Anne's job to find the blisters, and Chris' job to fix them. Each blister is opened up, ground down to eliminate the water-infiltrated area, and washed out (OK, Anne does the washing out, too). Extra fiberglass and resin are applied if the hole is deep, and the area is faired in with epoxy to protect the glass and even out the hull. Then the whole hull is painted.

In the process, monkey boy (see post #1) transformed into a pale Gumby (I'm Gumby, dammit!) to work on the hull. We had some blisters, but not many at all - we were quite pleased. We also were pleased to be able to stay at the home of our friends, Jeff and Elise (thank you, guys!), who offered us a bedroom in lieu of staying on the boat. Although we've usually stayed on the boat while hauled out, as you can see in the picture, it involves a lot of climbing up and down the ladder, and also using the boatyard bathroom, which is an adventure in itself. We're happy to put that off for another time.