The sun is shining...

...and that means back to sanding. Will be done the sanding later today, then it will be puttying in the dings, scratches and other dock bites to smooth out the hull. Then another round of sanding to get everything nice and smooth. If the weather holds, should be putting paint on by early next week.
It won't be soon enough....climbing ten feet up and down, and no head on board until I'm back in the water, is no fun.

Here we go again....

We got a pass on Katia and Lee - now, here comes Maria. Allright already, this track is enough south of Katia's that it could hit the US coast.

Predicted Storm Track for Maria. Click to enlarge

later today - update - Maria seems to be destined to remain a tropical storm, high winds but less than 74mph. So that's good. If she follows the usual pattern, she'll head west and then start curving north - you can see a hint of the curve beginning, taking her north and east of the Bahamas.
We can hope!


This second graphic is of the central North Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. You can see Kate at the top, Nate in the Gulf, and Maria coming along at the bottom. That's a lot of wind out there.

Rain, rain....

Go away. It's on and off drizzle today, meaning I can't work on painting the boat today - but what I will be doing is putting together the 'www.youcanfixyourboat.com' website. Our first project on this website will be - You CAN Paint Your Boat. I will be giving specific instructions on how to do your own boat - and get a professional finish and appearance, all while saving thousands - perhaps as much or more than $10,000. Tell me that isn't cool!

Ok, so this has nothing to do with painting...

but it's interesting all the same. A giant crocodile, 21 feet long, has recently been captured in the Philippines. The story is at http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/bizarre&id=8342468 Just look at the size of that monster.

Yup...ran out of sandpaper with only a few feet of the hull left to sand. Hurt all over, it's tough work, so I showered and the pup and I headed for the bar for a couple of ice cold Yeungling.
Feeling much better now...if it doesn't rain too hard tomorrow, should finish the sanding, then begin to fill the various scratches and dings. Once those are sanded back, some Interprotect as primer, sand again, then....ready to paint.
That is, if it doesn't rain all week.

Sanding halfway done...

My hands are tingling from my morning spent fondly caressing my orbital sander, but the boat is now half sanded....time for lunch, something ice cold to drink, some playtime with the pup, then back to it. I may run out of sandpaper before the day is through tho...

Hurricane Katia

Hurricanes are a fact of life in the south, particularly at this time of year. A week ago, Gypsy Wind was buffeted about by Irene, but was well protected and no damage was done. I've been sweating blood for the last several days about Katia, a category 1 storm that has been coming up the coast. This morning, as you can see, NOAA.gov showed a substantial change in the track, and I shouldn't have to worry any longer...until the arrival of Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince and Whitney.
And people ask me why I normally return to the Great Lakes every summer!
If you're interested in the history of hurricane naming, go here>http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml

Stuff, stuff and more stuff...

Here's a photo of just some of the items and Interlux products I'll be using to paint Gypsy Wind. Along with the usual paint supplies, cleaners, and fillers, there's the special roller covers for use with two part paints, foam brushes to tip with (I'll explain later), breathing mask and dust suit, scrapers for those nasty barnacles that you saw in the previous blog. It seems like a lot but it's not.
Really!

said Barnacle Bill....

Here's GW coming out of the water, and just look at the crop of barnacles
and other nasties she's got on her bottom.