ON THE HARD / January 8, 2016

"On the hard"  is a boating term for the boat being pulled out of the water to have the bottom or the hull worked on.  It's a lot more technical than that, but for us boat novices, you get the idea.

Mike wanted to get the hull re-painted and at the same time they apply this stuff called prop speed.  This does not sound like what you think it would be.  It is this dull gray looking flat paint that keeps algae and parasites from growing on the metals, so I'm told.  So once they pulled the boat out of the water, they discovered quite a bit of blistering.  Now this does describe exactly what it looked like.  And blisters are NOT a good thing.  Before any painting can be done the blisters have to be sanded down and there should be no moisture around those blisters. The more they sanded the more they found. It takes a loooong time to dry.  The boat ended up being out of the water for just under two months. 

Mike was having withdrawals, not being able to tinker on it for that long.  I'm sure the service manager got tired of him calling and stopping by.  Finally after spending quite a bit more than was expected, because of the blistering, we took her back to our Yacht Club on December 8th. In case you don't know BOAT used to mean Break Out Another Thousand, but with inflation...it's Break Out Another Ten Thousand.  Remember....it's a boat.