The boat is out of the water blocked up and almost ready for storage. We
are trying to eat up all the perishable food left and clean and repair
everything we can before we leave. Tomorrow will be a boat work day. Scrub
the decks, bilges, and oh yes the toilet... oh joy. I was hoping to get
away not painting the bottom. They pulled it out and not too many barnacles
but after a good pressure washing most of the antifouling paint went. They
did a nice job of lifting and blocking the boat. I will be able to sleep
nights when I get home. Zincs (sacrificial anodes on the bottom to keep the
hull from rusting) were all still there maybe half of them need to be
replaced. At any rate I need to repaint the bottom. The Micron ultra white
held up much better than I had expected. In the water under constant use
since April of last year. I will use it again. Growth here in the Med is
nothing like Florida... or maybe the paint is real good?
I took the outboard into the local mechanic along with the raw water pump
that was leaking and giving me some heart burn about running the engine
hard. Looks like we got that in just in time as some of the rubber impeller
fins had or were starting to break off. The outboard is another issue. I
will have to buy the parts in the US and ship them back here... I could
maybe have fixed the thing if I had parts... the mechanic looked at it and
said to Antony in Italian, "we just fix things here we don't change
parts...", when have you ever heard that in the US?
Antony leaves on the 3rd and I will go with him to the airport and then
catch a train into Rome and then Florence for a couple of three days of
R&R... a culture fix. I even have a hotel booked and everything. As our
Badger boat friends said it is time to 'take a vacation from sailing'.
I am ready to get back to Florida and the comforts of my happy home. Both
Katie and Chris will be there for the summer!
