October 10, 2011.

After we pulled the boat on Thursday I pulled the propeller off. On Friday it was winging its way across the country to be reconditioned out in Washington state. Since we needed it to be there on Monday morning we had to pay for magical expedited shipping to the tune of $255. I think I may have been able to fly there with the prop as carry-on for less than that. Crap.

Anyway, with the prop vacationing on the west coast we decided to hit the boat show. A disturbing trend that I noticed is that a lot of monohulls are getting fat asses. In the past the Shannons seemed to have the market cornered as far as ridiculously fat sterns went but a few more “sailboats” showed up this year looking like they needed to spend a few hours in the gym. This Moody 45 is a prime example. If you look closely at the woman in the blue top at the helm you will see what I find so disturbing; she can't see a god damned thing.

They put 2 helm stations in the cockpit and you really can't see shit from either wheel. Either side of the cabin is directly in the helmsman’s line of sight. Better yet is the fact that they flatten out the trailing edge of the roof line so they can utilize the space as dual nav pods.

Did you ever wonder how they weave double braid? Yeah, me neither but it was cool to see.

The boat show is always fun but more for the renewed acquaintances than the actual boats. We had meals with friends and saw people we haven't seen in about forever. We also missed seeing people that we were looking forward to catching up with. Everybody is running into different friends here and there; its just so hard to coordinate. On Saturday night we once again attended the Eastport Yacht Clubs Boat Show Bash and as always we had a real good time. Music, friends, eating and a bit o' drinking. On Sunday we put in a full day of boat chores. I compounded and waxed the entire hull while Christy Flitzed all of the stainless.

The Veranda hasn't been out of the water for 2 full years which means she hasn't been waxed in that time.

She never really struck me as being ratty looking but she must have been because shes looking pretty spiffy now.

While I was at work on Monday Christy spent the day preparing our brightwork for its yearly rehabilitation. When I got home I finally got around to replacing the main sheet. 4 years ago my brother in law, the racer, proclaimed it to be an antique. Due to the passage of time the old main sheet was now an official fossil so after applying some of my newly acquired mad splicing skills we are now in possession of a new main sheet.

Tonight we watched from the bow as the 42nd Annapolis Boat Show ended. Less than a minute after closing, the docks are moved to release the boats from their temporary captivity.

There’s a little bit of mayhem as so many boats jockey to get out of the confines of the show. Once all the sailboats are gone, the docks will be reconfigured to accept the boats due to be displayed at the Annapolis Powerboat Show which starts on Thursday.