We are back in the water and back home at our slip. We picked the boat up late Friday night. The Yachtfish folks were kind enough to make the boat available to us well after they had all gone home for the weekend.
New bottom paint, zincs, and cutlass bearings. This is the best picture of the bottom paint I could get. The boat was already in the water when we went to get it.
We are currently “on the hard” for bottom paint, zincs, and few other little things. It’s been two years since the boat was last out of the water, three years since the bottom was completely redone.
We came back from Poulsbo last Monday morning, stopped at the slip long enough to straighten up the boat and take some stuff off. Then I popped across the lake to Yachtfish Marine while Kim came around the lake with the car.
Along with bottom paint and zincs, Yachtfish is replacing the cutlass bearings while the boat is out of the water. They have a nifty gizmo that will eliminate much of the labor and time for this task. They can press the old bearing out and the new one in without the need to remove the shaft. They are also going to check shaft alignment and motor mounts for us. I don’t know when that was last done. The motor mounts could be as old as the boat.
I am an optimist. At least I am when it come to spending time on the boat. So our plan was to motor over to Poulsbo for a nice, relaxing weekend. Kim likes Poulsbo. We would anchor out and watch the world as the boat gently swings on the hook. That wasn’t exactly how it worked out. We started out well, but the weather turned uncooperative.
After an easy trip through the locks Saturday morning, we pointed the bow toward Port Madison. The sky was a thin overcast. The seas were calm, almost no other boats in sight. All was good in the world.
We are off to Poulsbo for the weekend Saturday morning. If you find yourself in the neighborhood, come by and say hi.
We are hauling out at Yachtfish Marine Monday morning for bottom paint and other minor work. Getting ready for spring! More on that later …
I always look forward to climbing around on boats I will never be able to afford. My friend Bruce joined Kim and I for a visit to the Seattle Boat Show to do just that. The nice, or at least interesting, part of this year’s visit was the tour of the booths at Century Link field. This is the first year that I actually felt we didn’t need anything for the boat. I, of course, am a bit conflicted about that. I am always looking for new and nifty gizmos.
I removed some old instruments from the salon wall recently. A barometer that said it was always sunny — which is not necessarily a bad thing in the northwest, and a wind speed gizmo that wasn’t connected to anything outside where the wind is. I relocated the clock to a more convenient location. As you can see from the different wood colors, these instruments have been on the wall for quite some time.
Now what to do? I don’t think I can easily make the dark spots light, and I doubt it’s practical (or affordable) to make the light spots (pretty much the whole interior) dark. I guess we’ll just hang a picture.
Here’s a video I put together from our trip in the Gulf Islands this last September. We broke out the kayaks and took a spin around Montague Harbour on a fine, fine day.
Fair warning. This is not a great video. You may regret the 13+ minutes you spend here … if you sit through the whole thing. It’s shot entirely handheld on my iPhone. The horizons are crooked. It’s not particularly exciting. And I’m not much an editor.
But … the weather was so fantastic that day, and the water so amazingly calm. And it was such a spectacular trip around the harbor, and just so damn nice to be there. That’s why I posted it. 4:50-8:00 is probably the best part.
