Back in the Water!

We would never have imagined this seemingly minor repair would have kept us out of the water this long but.....after TEN days, we launched Thursday the 10th and are back on a mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor in Marathon - yay!

This is Paul using a hose to pump compressed air inside various holes drilled in the rudder to force the water out. They started this process on Tuesday after we got back from the four days "up north" in Florida visiting Paul's brother Jim and family who were good enough to take in the "homeless couple". We weren't supposed to live aboard while the boat wasn't in the water because of the marina's insurance (we kind of had to work around that later in the week however).

By Wednesday afternoon, the technician was able to fill the holes and do the rudder repair with a West System product. After that set up, he was able to apply the barrier coat and bottom paint.
(sorry this is probably not that interesting to non-boaters).

Below is the finished product before we were lowered into the water on Thursday noon. We thought Joe did a great job and we were pleased that the bill from the boatyard wasn't nearly as high as we expected. We'd recommend Marathon Boatyard for anyone needing work done in the area. It was rather ironic that after all that time waiting, Cap'n Paul wasn't even here for the big launch. He happened to be returning the RAV we'd rented and was madly peddling his bike back from the airport. It was great having the car for a week and being able to get groceries and run errands anytime we needed to.

They also discovered our props had minor damage and were "dog-eared", probably from hitting a "deadhead" coming into Mobile, AL back in November (a deadhead is a log or piece of wood floating in the water but just under the surface). Here's our feathering prop after the re-conditioning work was done. They also replaced the disintegrating zincs with new ones when we discovered they needed replacing. Salt water eats up the zincs which prevent the shaft from being damaged. Salt water is definitely different from the fresh water of the Great Lakes and very hard on your vessel.

While we were waiting, Paul diligently worked on our inflatable dinghy to plug the leaks. Unfortunately, we found out yesterday that we still have the problem. We may be in the market for a new dinghy before too long. Weather permitting, we'll be heading northeast up the Keys toward the mainland tomorrow. It's been in the high 80s and too hot down here for us northern people. We did finally get Ginger a real haircut and she's much more comfortable. Em had been her "barber" for the past 7 months and it looked like it!

Misc: We met a couple from Wausau on the mooring ball who have been wintering down here on their s/v catamaran "Camelot" and saw m/v "Heaven Bound" with a home port of Sturgeon Bay.