We did about half the bottom before we quit on Saturday. It will take us an hour or so to finish it up.
Our new anchor has given us a small issue. We didn't have an anchor shackle quite big enough to connect the anchor to the section of chain rode. We got one during the week but the pin (which is supposed to be 5/8") is just a little too big to fit through the anchor shaft. The anchor shaft is cast and it looks like we'll have to clean up the hole by running a 5/8" drill through it a couple of times.
Today we moved up the date that the boat will go into the water from May 23 to May 19. Knowing the precision scheduling at Portland Riverside, there isn't much chance that the boat actually will go into the water on that date but it just might make it a few day earlier than we originally thought.
Given the mild winter and lack of rain, the Connecticut River is as docile as we've ever seen it at this time of year so if we do get in the water, it should be a pleasant cruise down the river. Before we go, we'd better remind the yard to remount our starboard prop. Kinda forgot that we had that taken off to repair the little dent we put in one blade.
It will be good to get the hell out of here. We took a few weekends off over the winter but we spent the rest of them working on the boat. Looking back over the past blog entries, it's gratifying to see how much we accomplished and to us, it was time well spent. But as much as we enjoy boat work, we're getting tired of it. Once we get to our summer slip, our lives change completely, Instead of freezing our butts off and crossing off one more thing on our "to do" list, we can relax and enjoy ourselves, our slip neighbors and being on the water.
New anchor won't fit
On Sunday, we drilled out the mounting hole in the shank of the new plow anchor, fastened the shackles and chain and pulled everything up with the windlass. The shackle on the new anchor was too wide to fit in the hinged guide that is supposed to hold the anchor in place.
Time to give up on this project. We attached the old anchor to the new line and pulled the anchor up in place with the windlass. Our original goal was to replace the 32 year old anchor line and we did that. Now we have all summer to figure out how to accommodate the new anchor and still have the windlass stow it properly.
Realizing that this may be our last weekend to get things ready, we finished spot painting the black ablative bottom paint and cleaned the scum off the boot top. Then we began disconnecting the many extension cords and lights that we needed during the winter and packed things away in the car.
Then we put out dock lines all around so that if the guys do put the boat in the water without telling us first, everything they need is ready. The boat is very dirty but we'll get a chance to hose it off, once we are in the water.
Before we left the boatyard, we took a look at the river on this beautiful spring afternoon.
It appeared to be low tide (there's a little more than two feet of tide even this far from the Sound) and the water level was really low. This is going to make it difficult to launch larger sailboats but a powerboat our size can go in even when the well looks like this.
Boats are launched bow out and we don't start our engines until we have been towed to a slip. That's not the case with the larger powerboats. There are probably half a dozen boats 48 feet or more in length to be launched and because they are too big for the existing slips, they have no place to go once they are in the water. We've seen owners jump on their boat as soon as it's floating, start the diesels and let them run for half an hour and then take off. Many, however, putter around on their boats for two or three days and when that happens, boat launching stops.
We're scheduled for Thursday, April 19 but if this is like past years, we'll have at least one more weekend to wait.
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