September 30, 2011

High Tide!!!

Juneau has been having extreme tide swings over the last couple of days.  Yesterday's afternoon high tide was a 20.2.  We've been in the boat yard for about 4 months and haven't seen the tide up this high yet.

~Misty~ 
The tide is creeping up to the edge of the boat cover


Looking down from the boat


It's moving under the boat

Just another 3' and we'd be floating

Water covering the "yard"

Looking towards the channel


The roadway was covered here


All Cleaned Up!

When the cover came down last week all of the sandblasting media that was up on the deck was soaked.  Tara and I spent Sunday morning scooping it all up and throwing it off the boat however, there was still a fine layer of dirt and media left covering everything.  By Monday we had a water connection and were able to get the rest of the grime off the boat.  Here she is all cleaned up...

~Misty~







September 24, 2011

Cover is On, Take 2...

We spent this morning putting the cover back over the boat so we can get this job DONE!!!  I have to say that it went much quicker and went on easier than the first time. We had a lot more help this time too!  Thank you to everyone who came out to help us; we couldn't have done it without you!!!

After our second trip down to the boat this morning, we decided it was going to be now or never.  Dave and Ty started calling anyone who they thought might show up and give us a hand.

We decided to cut the mast off just under the structure so it wouldn't be poking through this time.  Looks like we have yet another project to do once this whole thing is finished.  Dave would like to re attach the mast on a hinge in order to be able to lay it down in case we want to cover the boat in the winter time. 
Rounding up the troops
 It was threatening rain from the moment we got there, so Tara and I put on all of our raingear just in case.  Wouldn't you know it, the minute we unrolled the plastic the rain started.
Are we done yet??
 This time we bought the bigger roll of plastic; it covered the whole thing.
Getting the cover on

Waiting for the starboard side to be secured

Tara holding down the plastic; it kept wanting to take off in the wind

Rolling up the excess

More or less done


September 21, 2011

Weather Happens....

This is what we woke up to this morning.  Rain.... ok... we can deal with that. We've been dealing with that for 3 months. Gusts to 60mph.... not so good.


The wind has been blowing like crazy all day, with recorded gusts of over 65mph.  Dave had to decide whether to leave the cover up or take it down before it totally destroyed itself.  By lunchtime he had the guys cutting away all of the plastic in the hopes that the wind would just blow through the "skeleton" and not fall in a heap on and around the boat. The wind was blowing so hard that the 2x4 supports were breaking in half.  He definitely made the right decision. 

So.... what's next?  We'll be removing the rest of the plastic and tarps over the next day or two, then we'll be throwing another large plastic sheet back over the top.  We need to get all of the wet sand off of the deck, finish sandblasting and finish getting the first coat of paint on the deck.  Once all of that is finished, we can start spraying on the remaining coats of paint.

We are so close, yet so far away.....

~Misty~

Port side/bow

Bow

Starboard side

Bow deck



Still Sandblasting and Painting

We've finally made it up to the deck and we're sandblasting and painting almost daily.  This part seems to be going much more slowly than we had expected due to the extra layers of paint up top. 

Getting it done,slowly but surely

Checking out the sandblasting



Waiting for paint

Painted


Before sandblasting and painting we wrapped the house with cardboard and plastic to protect it and to keep the debris from getting inside. HA! HA!  it was definitely protected however, the sandblasting dust made it into every little crevice, crack and void that wasn't thoroughly covered.

Galley

Dust


~Misty~

September 16, 2011

Catching Up....

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought it was about time for an update.  We're now on the second coat of paint on the bottom and sides of the hull; this one is kind of a bronze color.  The sandblasting is going slower on the topside due to quite a bit more paint than what we found on the bottom.  It's easier to touch up the top and sides while your in the water, because that's what you can reach. 

We removed the boom the first day we started sandblasting; totally spaced that.  It's going to look weird without it.  We're going to eventually replace it with an aluminum one that is shorter and lighter. 

We're hoping to be back in the water by the end of this month however, I am not holding my breath!  When I think back to June when we first pulled 'er out of the water, we thought we'd be in and out in about 3 weeks.  It's September now and we've been out of the water for 3 1/2 months. 

Below are some updated painting and sandblasting pictures. 

~Misty~



 
1st coat of paint finished on the bottom

Anchor in the "sand"

This is what the stern looked like after they sandblasted back there

Dave sweeping up the sand

Stern

Starboard side painted

Starboard side

Deck full of sand

Second coat of paint

Second coat of paint

Second coat of paint

Second coat

Second coat




September 5, 2011

More Paint Pictures

We've started sandblasting and painting on the sides now.  We had enough blasting sand to get all the way down the starboard side, halfway across the stern and all the way up to the bottom of the rub rail.  Unfortunately we're out of sand, so we're at a standstill until it gets here on the barge on Wednesday. I'm pretty sure that we'll have all of the outside blasted and barrier coated by the end of the week. 

This is only the first of 6 coats of paint that we'll be applying. Once we finish rolling on the barrier coat below the water line, the remaining coats and everything topside will be sprayed on. I can't wait until we get to that point! The spraying should go quickly.

~Misty~

Stern

Starboard side

Starboard side