chipping away

well there was a paintjob that needed pink, so i got a flowerbox, oh yeah, the cabin sides are green now - with orange trim :-)

then i went on a retreat with some friends and managed to have a little relaxation

oh, and on occasion i do wear dresses for cocktail hour....
now i'm back and working on galley and forepeak, i'll be moving aboard on sunday. there' will be fotos of before and after posted. later

tow back home

on the tow back home Tim the diver drove by in his powerboat and took some pics, here they are!
you can see my new neighbor Marc Gounard in the skiff.

haul-out done

Sunday evening 19:00 i am home an just downloaded the photos form my camera. here is the before.


and here she is after. two coats of bottom paint, two coats of primer, two coats of topsides. Lotus is now blue!



then we had alittle rott surprise in the bilge which got sandwiched which hopefully takes care of that.
Daniel and Sushe helped me big time, and friday Ross and Tony put in probably a half day each. i even managed to put a coat of primer on the cabinside that is facing away from the dock. very tired, yesterday i couldn't do a thing, especially not blogging... Tomorrow is splash time and i'll be backin the harbor.

the hole in the bottom - note the daylight coming through...



my brave crew!


topsides done exept from this little corner which is in need of some cosmetics...

the aft end finished

bottom!

and i ain't talking bdsm...
Lotus: haulout workday nr. 1
the fuzzy wood is still drying out
Sushe came and worked all day, cleaning the bilges and then helping with splashzoning the chine.
i did some reefing and caulking, will need to do a bit more tomorrow. there wasn't that many bad seams, phew.
the two pads that were put over where the prop strutts used to be appeared to have been just screwed on from the outside with sheetrock srews or something, they just came off with no fastener to be seen.... i made two new plates and they'll get fastened tomorrow.
little worm damage in the shoe, nothing a little cement can't fix, that's all prepped for tomorrow too.
now she's sitting, drying a bit more, and tomorrow should be rock and roll time for the bottom as well as the topsides. it's a lot of work, but doable by sunday.

Lotus is hauled out

we finally did it. at around 17:00 i ran into Jeff and we walked over to the yard together, jmust in time to help Ross putting the Peregrine into the water and scootch Lotus onto the railway car and pull her up.
i soent the next hour and a half pressurewashing her bottom... few oysters, some slimy things, not too much real hardcore growth, even after 4 years...
i found some quiet fuzzy wood on the starboard aft end. hmmm
real assessment and photos in daylight tomorrow. Sushe will come out and be my lovely assistant for the day, hopefully i'll have more crew show up and get her ready to be splashed by Sunday. i'd love to get the topsides painted in the yard as well, at least sanded and primed...
adventure mate out for now (catching Zs)

drakes bay drowned in storm

but we knew that would happen, so we didn't attempt to go out into the ocean, even though i so much wanted to... instead we sailed to china camp, anchored there, cooked a good meal, played some music and slept on the hook...
actually, it didn't even rain...
there was some rain we saw over berkeley while sailing through racoon straights, but it went south, we mostly had sun, and very fair winds on the light side.
of course in the ocean there was still the swell and it was high and from the south, so we did well not to venture out there. that would have been the kind of rock and roll we don't enjoy...




in the morning Anton got picked up by his girlfriend Julie at China Camp and Jody and i made the trip back to sausalito by ourselves. with Taihoa contributing quiet a bit....
we had a weird easterly wind for half the way and we did set the D-sail to round san pedro point and then again to make the richmond bridge. overall it was very mellow and vacationey. we drank way too much beer wich resulted in having to get up in the middle of the night to pee... oh well. sleeping on the hook is something else, and if you actually get to get up at night you notice that the boat swings with the tide. in the morning we were in the same position we were when the sun went down, but in the middle of the night we pointed exactly the other way... we saw first the sun set, then the moon set, got to observe a huge amount of stars and then woke up to the sun rising again...

it was soothing to sway on the rode and hear the waves lapping on the hull, it is a different experience from being in a marina, i love it...

on 'LOTUS'

so here it is, the day that Lotus is finally mine. i went down to the boat after work, it is of course empty - except for a matress and some galley stuff... i felt incredibly lonely and not at home at all and had to give the situation a good cry.
then it got better, as i walked out of the harbor to do something other than sitting in an empty boat, Maite just arrived with goodies, and i got coffee and bread for breakfast tomorrow. better already... now i'm at the boys' shop e-mailing, because i can't do that either of course on the boat, everything has been shut off. i'll get my bike from my shop, retrieve my toothbrush from Alesha and Ginger's boat where i forgot it yesterday and give it another try.
i also got my hair cut. at least something feels good. :-)
this week we'll finish working on the lobster boat and i'll bring all my stuff together in the small room at 207. then over the weekend i'm finally going ocean sailing. even if just for 2 days. Jody is taking Anton and me to Drake's Bay on Taihoa. Casey from PT will come along buddyboating, i don't know if there'll be anyone else. it's supposed to be raining and cold.. good practice for a nordic adventure... bah! patagonia did that already!