After last Tuesday’s haul out, we pulled tons and tons of money out of the bank to hand over to the the previous owner of the boat soon to be known Saltbreaker. Having this much money gave me all sorts of opportunities I knew I’d never have again. Throwing it all up in the air or using a bill to light a cigar were both good options, but in the end I settled with fanning myself, throwing it out the window to Alex, and burying my roommate’s cat in Benjamins.
To celebrate buying a new boat, we went sailing in a different one. Alex and a few friends own a cool old wooden boat, so we took that out on the bay and under the golden gate.
The whole week since then has been spent getting the new boat ready to go back in the water. We reasoned that instead of paying the boatyard to do the bottom paint for us, we could actually save money by buying the necessary tools and doing it ourselves. Monday and Tuesday were spent preparing for and sanding the bottom. While sanding, I found that some previous owner had run the boat along something, gouged up the keel, and repaired it a long time ago. Part of the repair was done with wood and this had warped over the years, leaving a gap which I had to fill with epoxy. Also, a bolt on the grounding plate had become corroded and had weakened the fiberglass around it, so I had to cut out some glass and make a backing plate to seal it back up again.
Before we go back in the water, we need to replace the zinc anodes, replace some other backing plates, replace a thru-hull, and paint the bottom and the boot stripe, so the next few days will be pretty busy.
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