September 27, 2009.

Things are progressing well here on the hard in Annapolis. We got hauled on Thursday morning. I ended up working until dark on both Thursday and Friday so pretty much nothing got started on our boat.

Saturday morning we were up and at it though. I was able to scrounge up a pair of excellent A-frames for making some scaffolding. I needed to compound Verandas hull, then wax her and redo the teak toe and rub rails. Scaffolding will make these chores a lot easier than working from a ladder like we have the last couple of years. While I did that, Christy went to work on cleaning our prop and shaft.

So I set the scaffolding up and I was halfway down the starboard side, compounding the hull when the skies opened up and that was the end of that. We ended up running around town doing some shopping and whatnot while promising to go at it earlier and harder the next day.

Sunday morning brought an end to the rain and we got started in earnest. We lowered the dink to the ground and maneuvered it to a good spot for Christy to begin a complete cleaning. She had to empty it which is a lot more involved than you might imagine. The fuel tank, the life jackets, flares, spare anchor, various lines, bug repellent, WD40, chapstick, lights, about 40 lbs of sand and numerous shells and oars all had to be taken out before removing the dinghy chaps so that they could be cleaned and patched. Finally it was flipped over and Christy attacked the growth that had accumulated on the bottom with various chemicals, scrapers and swearing.

While she was working out some anger issues on the dinghy I was able to compound and wax the starboard side of the hull. While I had the scaffolding set up on that side I also sanded and got the first coat of Cetol on the rub and toe rails.

Right after I moved all the scaffolding around to the port side the youngest girlchild showed up with a cake for Christy’s birthday so work was done for the day.