We're still making progress. The hull is mostly finished. We put the first coat of blue on the cove stripe today...my only fear now is runs through the tape - AwlGrip is notorious for its capillary action...we did our best to seal where we taped off... Second coat goes on tomorrow if the weather cooperates. The newly designed name graphics go on tomorrow as well. Tape should be able to come off by Wed or Thu so we'll see the glory of our hard work then. Until that day we have to be patient. Ploddy, ploddy.
The cove stripe was a real rough one. It is a nice indented, molded line but it had been slightly extended before. We narrowed it down a bit. Sanding it was touchy because we didn't want to nick or mar the hull paint.
The transom turned out lovely - after sanding out the Love Bug Playboy After Dark that happened we repainted and it looks near-perfect. Of course there are a few imperfections in the hull but from 5' they disappear, from 30' it looks flawless (so far.)
Bottom paint goes on this week. Still waiting for our AGM/Lifeline batteries and have to put on a turnbuckle for the headstay/roller furling assembly for the headsail. Heather is sanding and varnishing the splash boards for the companionway, the outboard mount, etc. and I am going to repair a few chips in the deck. We hope to be back in the water next week. On our way by Dec 5. The light parade and Green Cove Springs Christmas Fesival is Dec 1-3 so we'll probably hang around for that, do our Bahamas/Caribbean provisioning at Sams while we can vacuum-seal everything.
So all is well. Things are pretty much going according to plan, pretty amazing everything considered. I am quite proud of the both of us, if we ever need emergency cash I would seriously consider doing such work - high quality is satisfying but the stress...you have to be intensely meticulous on the prep work and you're nervous until the brush hits the hull...then there's no turning back.
We'll see how it turns out in a few days... | 