May 14. Our last weekend in the shed

The folks at the boat yard told us today that the boat will probably go in the water Monday, May 16. Note the word "probably." We'll see, but if not Monday, it will be one day next week.  That starts the sequence of things we have to do to move the boat to Norwich.  Tomorrow, we'll drive to Norwich and put out our docking lines, fenders and boarding step.  Once the boat goes in, we'll start the engines, check things out and hopefully get a chance to change the oil and filers before we leave.  If not, we'll do it once we get to Norwich.

Today, we started very early with a stop at Defender in Waterford to get some hull cleaner and polish and a flag holder that Frances has been requesting for months. With that done, we went back to Portland and did a few last minute maintenance things like replace a canvas snap on the side of the bridge and investigate why our old Guest remote control spot light wouldn't light up any more.  The relay in the spotlight had apparently hung up and since this thing is probably 20+ years old, we decided to give it one more opportunity to redeem itself.  We turned it on and then gave it a sharp rap with the handle of a screwdriver.  That did it.  The spotlight came to life and continued to work each time we tried it. Note to the boat list for next winter:  Ask Santa for a new spotlight. Today's equivalent of our old Guest spotlight (almost identical to the old one) is more than $300 so Santa may need to be generous.

With that done, we began cleaning the cabin top. This is a two-step process: first apply the cleaner and once that has been polished off, apply the wax. The cabin top looked OK after application of the cleaner.

We're still trying to get rid of the oak leak stains that appeared while we were waiting to get into the shed last fall.  These stains won't come out with any substance that we have tried.  We'd rather not damage the gel coat trying to sand them off.  Anyone have any ideas?

Then, armed with a supply of old towels, we began the cleaning and then waxing process on the starboard hull side.  Amazing how big a 34-ft. gets when you do this. We managed to finish the starboard side before we ran out of energy.  Looks OK,  Not like a new boat but probably good enough for this season,.Tomorrow, after returning from Norwich, we'll tackle the port side.