Supplies are important...

Nothing worse than running out of boat painting supplies on a hot day...

Almost ready to paint...

Gypsy Wind looks like she's suffering from the measles...I've been filling in the various dock bites that have accrued over the years with Interlux Watertite, then sanding them back.

Dock bites....

What puzzles me though is, every morning this week that I've gotten back on that ladder, there seem to be still MORE dings and scratches. Now either my vision is failing rapidly, or those dock bites are getting together at night and procreating! 

Today should see the last of the scratch and ding filling. Then I'll sand the boat down one more time and wash it down with Interlux 202 to clean it up for painting.

Lots and lots of dock bites!

A special project later today. My boot stripe has always been too low in the stern, so the guys from Schroeders Yacht Systems are going to use a special technique to set it right. I'll be doing video of this process, if this is a project you're looking at, the video may well help you to get it right.

Time for lunch, then back to it!

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.