July 16, 2013

Yesterday the Kentris was squeezed into a travel lift that was barely large enough to hold her, lifted out of the water by two very large (and hopefully strong) straps, power washed while in the slings, and then moved to her position in the boat yard and left to stand on her keels in the hot sun. She is not very happy here, out of her element. But it is a necessary evil in order to restore her undersides close to their former pristine beauty.

Tom started early this morning sanding all the rough spots and removing the barnacle “glue” remaining after the power washing had removed the barnacles and slime. It has taken multiple hours with him dressed in protective clothing and respirator. I think he has taken four showers so far today. Oh, did I forget to mention that it is 95 degrees out there? And very high humidity as well. Yes, it is pretty darn uncomfortable and we can't run the AC because that system uses the water that we are not in right now.

The little marina that we are using has none of the luxuries you might find in larger, better known facilities, such as an air conditioned lounge, internet, pool, restaurant, etc. It's a waterman's marina with few pleasure craft, mostly crabbers and fishermen. But it has a large enough lift for us (which can be hard to find) and the price is right. This whole process is not cheap so if we can safely save a few bucks, we will. And we are located in the great sailing area of the southern Chesapeake Bay, so when we get back in the water, we'll spend some time sailing with friends who are currently off somewhere on their boat, having a good time while waiting for us to get this job done.  It looks as if it will be Friday before we they can "splash" us.  Have to wait on new parts.

Some other friends have loaned us a car to use while we are here. They are due to bring it this evening, so tonight we are going to find an air conditioned restaurant and sit there for hours and hours! It is way too hot to cook much on the boat. One of the men who works here has brought us multiple tomatoes, 2 eggplants, some peppers, and some basil from his garden. How wonderful is that? In the morning, before it gets too hot, I plan to make a vegetable concoction of some sort that we can just warm up for dinner tomorrow.

No pictures today.  Sitting outside a Starbucks to use their internet and didn't bring the camera with me.