First Week of Haulout - 2017

--Blogpost written by Bob

On Friday night, with Maggie's daughter's help, we moved our car to Galesville, about 90 minutes south of Baltimore by car.  On Saturday morning, we motored to Galesville.  There wasn't much wind, even though we motor-sailed for a little while.  It took six hours to travel from our summer slip in Baltimore Harbor to Galesville.  During the trip, we could not exceed 2100 RPM.  I believed that barnacle growth on the prop was preventing us from motoring faster.  (After haulout we could see the barnacle growth that was slowing us down.)  We were still moving in excess of 6 knots most of the morning and we seemed to have a favorable tidal current.  (Prior to our recent trip to the Bahamas, I never noticed much tidal current in the Chesapeake Bay.)

On the day before we left for Galesville, Lizzie
could tell that something was different.

Our boat is tied to the dock just prior to haulout.

Rainy Days is hauled out and is still on 
the travel lift in this photo.

Barnacle growth on the propeller just after haulout--this
much growth (created by 2 months of inaction in
Baltimore Harbor) cost us 1/2-knot of boat
speed on the way to Galesville.

Most of the engine maintenance was completed during the first day of the haulout.  The work scaffolding was erected around the bow so that fiberglass repairs can begin tomorrow (Tuesday, August 22).

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The peacefulness of the West River in early morning.

One of the reasons I like coming to Galesville is the peacefulness and tranquility.  After staying in Baltimore for hurricane season, this newly found peacefulness is invaluable.  

Early this morning I watched an older man walking his dog in the marina.  It seemed like he had trouble walking, as his small dog tugged on his leash raring to go for a walk. Sometimes I feel like that older man, particularly early in the morning, when my right knee is acting up and my fingers are feeling stiff.  

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Rainy Days is supported by eight jack stands and two 
wooden blocks under the keel while 
she is out of the water.

The boatyard didn't waste any time in grinding out 
the damaged areas of the bow.  The broken 
fibers caused by the anchor swinging 
freely went pretty deep into 
the fiberglass.

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Maggie has been working very diligently on our new dinghy seat bag.  The dinghy seat bag we purchased last year is on its last legs.  Our new one is being custom-made from toast-colored Sunbrella fabric (matching the rest of the canvas on our boat) with black mesh on the bottom of the cavities for drainage and black trim and zippers.

In this photo, Maggie is sewing the heavy-duty zipper in place
using TENARA thread. This zipper fastens the
dinghy seat bag to the dinghy seat.

We store two personal flotation devices, the dinghy's foot pump, the dinghy's running lights, spare spark plugs for the outboard, our scoop for bailing rainwater out of the dinghy, and a few other items in the dinghy seat bag.  It is very useful.

This is the completed dinghy seat bag--this side with two
equal pockets faces the bow of the dinghy.

The opposite side which has one large pocket and a
small open pouch faces aft in the dinghy.

It took Maggie about 10 hours (and about $60 worth of materials) to make the new dinghy seat bag.  We reused the closed cell foam from the old seat cushion.  We believe this dinghy seat bg will last at least 5 times as long as the one we purchased last year.

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I've been working on finishing the boat's sole (the floor boards) all week.  I started out by working on them on the porch of the cottage we are renting.  This seemed a perfect solution for me since I could work in the shade and all my work was protected from the hot sun and the occasional rain.

The floorboard on the left of this image was coated with varnish last
night, after the badly worn areas were stained.  While
it looks good from a distance, it still needs a lot of
sanding and re-coating with varnish.

However, the management didn't like it very much and thought I might have an accidental spill of varnish (or stain which would be much worse) and asked me to move the boards over to the marine railway where they do their varnishing.

In this photograph, the floor boars are spread out over the marine 
railway to dry.  I would sand and coat all the boards once 
each day until they were finished, resulting in total of 
about 5 coats of Epifanes varnish.  I finished 
this project on Sunday evening.

Most of the smaller boards and separation pieces were done
together on the railway members nearest the water.

One of the mistakes I made while finishing the floor boards was to fill some of the dents with epoxy.  The epoxy turned white when curing and caused a lot of extra sanding and staining. To get a nice smooth finish I sanded between coats with progressively finer sandpaper (180, 220, and finally 440-grit sandpaper) in my palm sander.  Eventually, I was able to either sand off the white spots, stain them, or cover them up with the varnish.  (The corrections because of the attempt at epoxy filling of a few dents cost me a whole day's work.)

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Another project I was working on during the week was repairing the boat's dining table.  Three screws on one side that hold the top of the center piece of the table to the base were coming loose from the under side of the table top--the holes were becoming enlarged, allowing the top to lift when downward pressure was applied to the leaf of the table.

I epoxied three toothpicks in each of the three holes that were 
enlarged.  Later, I cut off the top of the toothpicks.  This 
created tighter holes for the screws to get a better grip.

Besides, embedding toothpicks in the holes so that the screws would fit tighter, I also added four more wood screws in the area where the table was lifting (not yet done in the above photo.

Another area of the table that I improved was the metal mounting base--it was severely corroded.  I brushed off most of the rust and primed it and then painted it with an off-white enamel to match the light interior portions of the boat.

There is a little stub that the single support leg fits into--this was not 
removable and we had to paint it in place.  The yellow paint 
shown above is the primer.  The table is also supported 
by two bolts that are tapped into the mast.

The dining table is now repaired and put back together--it will be mounted on the boat on Wednesday evening!

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I finally got the resolution on my defunct one-year old outboard engine--Yamaha is covering the cost of repairs under their 3-year warranty!  Since we decided to downgrade to a 6 HP engine because it is nearly 20 pounds lighter and easier for me to manhandle, we purchased our new 6 HP motor on Saturday (and will be picking it up next Wednesday afternoon).  After the 9.9 HP motor is repaired we will be selling it on consignment at Fawcett's.

At nearly 20 pounds lighter than the 9.9 HP, we think the 6 HP
Yamaha will be perfect for our needs in the Exumas.

I'm going to call it a wrap at this point.  It is Sunday morning and we have all next week to finishing up all the haulout projects and move back onto the boat.  Stay tuned for the completion...


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