Dry Dock Week 3 Splash Day

Well it has been exactly three weeks and we are going in the water today.  After last week’s post things started happening.  The carpenter got after the scarf and did a beautiful job.  All the painting is done except the places where it is sitting on blocks.  That can’t be done until they lift us in the slings.  The forestay is laid out just waiting on the top toggle and should be here in the next couple of days.  Basically we have everything we set out to do, done.  The exhaust went in easier than expected.  We still have to wrap it but need to verify no leaks when we get in the water, before we can do that.  There is sanding and varnishing to do but that was never going to be done here anyway.

the cranse iron

the scarf in the rub rail, that you can hardly see

the bobstay fitting

 

Mark is leaving to work for about two weeks which will help recoup some of the expenses from this dry dock.  All in all things have come together nicely.

Dry dock Week Two Summary

 Well in a few hours we will have been in dry dock two weeks.  A lot has happened but nothing is really finished.  The blue stripe is on but will need some touch up once the rub rail repair goes in.  The bobstay fitting and Cranse Iron are fitted but not connected.  The exhaust riser is back but not installed.  A lot of the white is on but the transom is not, and all that is on will need a light sand and at least one more coat.  The first coat of bottom paint went on.  However it will need another then we need to move the jack stands and get the areas that are under them.  We cut the broken scarf out of the rub rail and realized it will require more tools or skill than we have.  We think we have sourced a carpenter but he is rather busy.  He thinks he will have time before Thursday.  Which would be great as we could just feasibly make a launch date on Friday.  If he can’t we will probably be here another week as he is traveling after Thursday.  The forestay is still waiting for the custom toggle to arrive from the East Coast.  That can be installed in the water.  So all in all we are making progress and hopefully this week we will finish.  BUT!!!!!

Dry Dock One Week

 esterday meant we have been up on the hard for a week.  Things slowed down a bit after those first couple of days.  We hired a guy to sand and paint the hull above the water line.  The purpose here is not to get a pretty job.  Just to get underneath the existing stuff.  It will all come off during our major dry out when we get on the hard in Mexico.  But we, or rather Mark, couldn’t stand her looking as bad as she was with sheets of paint peeling off and blisters everywhere.  Eight years in the Alaskan rainforest has taken their toll on her paint and varnish work.  We hired Pio, mainly for his tool.  Mark was scraping and sanding with a random orbital and was watching the guy next door working with his Festool.  The guy with the super tool was taking things down quickly.  We went to look at buying a Festool (they aren’t cheap) and the guy said he would do the job for us for the price of the tool.  So we bit in.  Of course that means we are working around his schedule.  But things are moving quickly again.  The bottom paint is mostly sanded and ready for stuff to go back on.  The Blue stripe should get painted today and the white within two to three more days.  The new Cranse Iron is fitted and the bobstay fitting is ready to go on.  We are just waiting for some custom bolts to be made.  The forestay rigging is ordered.  Unfortunately the top toggle is a custom piece and there is a delay on it.  That won’t stop us from going in the water.  But we can’t leave until it is back up.  The green mainmast is white again.  We used a whole tub of Clorox wipes to clean the mold off!  We were struggling to find a carpenter not too booked up to repair our damaged rub rail.  Pio has said he and another guy can fix that so hopefully that will get done first part of next week.  The flex part for the exhaust mixer riser is in.  Waiting for an elbow on that and then it should be welded up soon.  So all in all it looks like we will be on the hard a week longer than we expected but that should be it.