Cream Puff is out of the water once again. We recently had bottom paint applied. The purpose of the bottom paint is two fold. First, it protects the fiberglass hull from direct contact with the salt water that can cause pitting and blisters (not good). Second, it prevents growth of barnacles and all sorts of mollusk like critters from attaching themselves to the boat. A clean bottom is a good thing (insert your own joke here).
About six weeks after our haul out, I dove down under Cream Puff for a look-see. I wasn’t happy. We had a tremendous amount of barnacle growth in patchy areas of her bottom. I am glad we had our work done at a professional and reputable boat yard as they did not hesitate to say “bring her back – we’ll fix it”. Although we are still not sure what went wrong, Interlux and Sailor’s Wharf are working together to sand and repaint the bottom at no cost to us.
Here is the picture after just 6 weeks back in the water after the initial paint job. The bottom should be completely clear are any barnacles.
I have to apologize for the length between our blog postings. We moved the boat to St Petersburg, Florida so we could learn how to sail her and spend as much time as possible in St Pete while we wrap up loose ends with our land life. Our loose ends are taking a little longer than expected but we are making progress – slow but sure. We have been so busy going back and forth. The housing market has turned in our market and I am spending my days (when not on the boat dealing with bottom paint issues) painting the house and getting it ready to sell. As like any project, this is taking much longer than anticipated. Cindy has her company listed with a business broker and we still hope to sell by this summer. I am selling a lot of stuff we figure we do not want to keep or store listed on eBay. We had a huge construction dumpster and filled it up in one day. We now need another dumpster. It is truly amazing how much junk we have accumulated in the 18 years in this house.
Our stretch goal is to be fully living on the boat by end of hurricane season this year (November) and then head out for the Bahamas for the winter. If we miss that, perhaps the Chesapeake Bay in the summer of next year. We’ll see. Our plan is very fluid (get it – fluid – boat – water —– never mind!).
