High water

We should be used to this by now.

On Friday, April 2, the Connecticut River at Middletown (where our boat is stored) rose to 14.3 feet. That's about a foot below Major Flood Stage. At that height, the river comes right up into the boat yard although it takes at least another 4-5 feet before any real damage is done to the boats. By the next morning, the river level had already begun to fall.  When we arrived, it looked like this:

At its highest, the water was just touching the bottom of the white 38-ft. Pacemaker seen at the right and had advanced up the driveway toward where we were standing when we took this picture.

We've had a boat at this boatyard since 1986 and only once, in 1987, did the river come up far enough to actually lift the boats off the jack stands. In a yard like this, boat owners are expected to show up and work in an emergency and we all did. The water crested at about 9 PM and we began moving the boats out into the driveway.  During the night and into the next morning, all of the boats that floated were towed out of the yard and down river about a half mile, were they were all anchored.

Some boat owners elected to take their chances and left their boats on the jack stands with the garboard drain plugs out, so that the boats would slowly take on enough water to keep them in place. For some, that strategy worked, leaving only a muddy bilge.  For others, the engine and batteries went under and many of those boats - mostly wood in those days - were damaged beyond repair.

Just part of being on a major river in New England.

This weekend, with warmer weather, we concentrated on painting the forward deck.  That was two coats over three days with paint that is as close as we could find to what Silverton originally used.  But before anything was painted, Frances scrubbed every inch of the foredeck and side decks with Dirtex, her favorite heavy duty cleaner. Since there was no water near the boat, we hauled buckets from the nearest tap to rinse off the Dirtex and associated grime.

After scrubbing, drying and painting, it looks very nice and at this point, we have only the cockpit sole left to paint. We also applied another layer of fiberglass and resin on the soft spot we had previously excavated on the rear deck.

Before leaving on Sunday afternoon, we mounted the TV that Frances bought as a Christmas present for the boat. We looked at many swivel type wall mounts and most appeared to be pretty weak.  Frances finally found one that appeared strong enough and had enough flexibility to allow the TV to be seen from virtually any angle on the boat. Actually mounting it was a two-person job but the time we took really paid off.

As it is now mounted, the TV folds back flat against the wall, completely out of sight in that upper berth, leaving plenty of room for someone to still sleep there without the TV getting in the way. When folded out, it can be seen in the salon or flipped back the other way, viewed from the v-berth. And, in the third position, the Commodore can watch and participate in a cooking program in the galley!

Aside from painting the cockpit sole, only the nasty job left is to paint the bottom. We got the bottom masked on Sunday but luckily for us, the boat yard had run out of the paint we needed. Guess that will have to wait until the paint comes in and we can devote an entire day to it.