The harbor office said that they were all booked for moving vessels into the water on Friday, so we thought we would be in the yard over the weekend, and splash on Monday. Turns out, while we were having our coffee, and reading emails Friday morning, they decided we had 20 minutes to get ready, and they would splash us now! Scramble drill! Put stuff away, prepare the boat for underway mode, get all the tools, ladders, paint, and buckets out from underneath the boat, and toss it into the truck bed. And just like that, we're back in our slip in Heritage Harbor.
Arriving our slip.
While we were in the yard, they moved this beautiful old wooden boat in to be restored.
Notice the size of the Pirate's Pride, and the size of Denali Rose, they had to use the large lift for this one.
We did manage to get at least 2 coats of bottom paint on all around [and 5 at the waterline, rudder and skeg, prop area, and all leading edges...] The Alaska Airlines air freight paint arrived on Tuesday, the UPS replacement paint from Jamestown Distributors arrived on Thursday, and the USPS paint from Fisheries has arrived on Saturday. We are all painted out.
We shouldn't see this view of Denali Rose for another 4-5 years again.
After postponing the boat haul out a couple of times, we finally made it to the boatyard to get our maintenance completed. Circumstances did not go as well as we would have liked.
Last time we did this was in 2017, we left both cats onboard during the sling ride, but the process of the required heavy duty hull pressure washing, and the internal noise of the hose frightening them, they hid for quite awhile. This time, since Gus is all by himself, we decided to take him off the boat, put him in his carrier, and leave him in the car till the boat was settled in our spot in the yard. Since it was also time for his vaccination updates, we figured to get that out of the way while he was off the boat. I put him in the carrier, and completed his exam while Bill drove the boat to the yard, did the washing, and watched the boat being placed.
Unhappy Gus at the vet office, "I'm not coming out of here!"
Denali Rose in the travel lift slings.
Bill, pressure washing.
Gus had to stay in his carrier in the car for a couple of hours while tasks were being completed, and in the meantime I went to the post office to pick up a gallon of bottom paint that Jamestown Distributor's mailed to us. We have one, and needed one more to complete the job.
I had to go around the back of the post office, where they have a loading dock for heavy, and large parcel pickup, the postal worker, pulled out a bundle, and said, "it's in a plastic bag, that's never a good sign!"
And it wasn't.
The gallon of bottom paint, and a quart of varnish had exploded in transit, and it was a gooey mess. I hope that it didn't affect too much of the other mail!
Prior to the haul out, Bill had placed an order with a chandlery in Seattle, Fisheries, he ordered some boat parts, a quart of Awlgrip paint to match our freeboard boat color, and a gallon of bottom paint. All of this was put on the AML barge for Wrangell, because the Awlgrip paint is a hazardous substance and couldn't be mailed. The bottom paint is not a hazardous substance. When we received the shipment the bottom paint was missing, and we found out that the new electronic cart/cash out system that Fisheries had put in place, had dropped that item out of the cart. This was the reason for the quick order from Jamestown, who had put the new gallon in priority mail. Best laid plans.....
Now we still needed another gallon, Bill immediately went back to Fisheries to get them to put one in the mail pronto, and emailed Jamestown about the paint disaster. Jamestown, right away apologized, and agreed to send us a new can, pack it better, and use UPS to get it to us. As of this writing, the tracking shows the can from Jamestown is scheduled to arrive next Tuesday, and the one from Fisheries is scheduled to arrive at least a week after that. Criminy, more time on the hard, and every day the $$ increases. Too much drama!
Next Update: We're trying to order from West Marine in Anchorage, and have a courier pick it up to deliver to Alaska Airlines for freight transport to Wrangell. We may end up with two extra gallons, all ready for the next haul out. 😀
We've had some good news while in the yard though, we finally got our out-of-water insurance survey done. A surveyor came up to SE Alaska from Port Angeles, WA, he had several boats to do, and was able to fit us into his schedule. We were happy to hear that he couldn't find anything wrong with the boat, gave us a couple of small recommendations, and now we can move forward with maintaining our insurance. The surveyor wanted to know where we hauled out every year, we replied that our last haul was four years ago. He couldn't believe how clean the hull was, due to the great bottom paint. He was also glad we hadn't painted yet, so he could see the condition before we put on a nice new coat.
On the hard.
We're in the yard with several of our friends, and their boats, Alaskan Odessey is next to us, Gypsy Wind was here for a few days, Northern Islander, and our friends from Petersburg on Salty Dawg. Also our friends on Adventures, who didn't need yard time, but came to help out with Denali Rose. Robin is an expert at epoxy, and Awlgrip paint, and came to fix some dings on the sides, and a bad spot on the transom where someone did a hit and run our first year in Wrangell. She also let us try a new cleaner, and we're hooked! We've used everything under the sun to get rid of the soot marks from the engine exhaust, this stuff worked the miracle.
No terrible scent, and no terrible additives, I'm ready to toss out most of the other cleaners, and go with this. LOL. Someone To Do It [Cream Cleaner.] Funny either way.
Robin working on a scratch. I put the first scratch in Denali Rose, at Port Townsend, right after we had moved aboard in 2014.
The hit and run ding, epoxied, and ready for paint.
Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate enough for a second coat of paint, so completion will have to be done at a later date. I'm appreciative that it looks better already.
In the meantime, we'll get the rudder, and shaft all cleaned up, put new anodes on, and do the first coat of bottom paint. More to follow.
(Anodes are commonly used to help protect the hull in the case of galvanic corrosion caused by electrical current flowing between connections and between dissimilar metals.
Sacrificial anodes dissolving, instead of the prop, and shaft.
Now to use the grinder to polish up the cutlass bearing, the shaft, and the prop, getting it ready to apply anti-barnacle paint.
I'll leave you with a song that sums up life "On The Hard".
