Trawler Punches on the IntraCoastal Waterway

Done with the Bottom

So I lost a week getting another contarctor to blast the paint off using the farrow system. It was great - no mess, but more $$ than I had planned. The pictures below show the blasting with hot weater and volcanic ash, note how little stuff is going into the air. The paint removel left most of a prior epoxy barrier coat, but I put back on 3 coats of epoxy and then 3 coats of new bottom paint.

The Bottom Painting Saga

OK. We are back in Virginia and the boat is uncovered, washed and waxed. I planned to take it from irvington to Deltaville Virginia, a trip of about 10 nautical miles so that I could have the bottom stripped. There is just too much paint on the boat. Today I found out thet the contractor I wanted to use does not have liability insurance and so cannot do the wok for me. I Imay be able to have the boat yard do it, but at a higher price. Leason learned -- ask about the insurance first. Of course I had already moved the boat to Deltaville when I found this out--ug!!!!!

Ski Week at Steamboat Springs, CO

I just returned from a week of skiing with the Richmond Ski Club at Steamboat. We had new snow on Sunday and Monday and that gave us some good powder skiing. Most of the week saw some snow showers but we had full sunshine on our last day Friday.
For two days I used a cool GPS tracker that tells you everything you did on the mountain. To access my two ski days go to this web site; Joe's Ski days use urbanjoe as the id and steamboat as the password. You will be able to playback my ski day if you like and see all of the stats. All in all a great week.

Steamboat Ski Area

Great Trip to the Florida Keys

I helped good friends Dale & Lauermann take their Monk 36 PRIME Time from Ft Pierce to Marathon last week. Except for some rain the first day we had great weather. The first day we ran about 72n miles from Ft Pierce and anchored in Delray Beach. Then on Wednesday we ran about 62 miles from Delay Beach to Key Biscayne Yacht Club. We had to open a ton of bridges but hit all but one on time. Good friends Greg and Sue Han hosted us at the KBYC. Thursday we ran in flat conditions down Biscayne Bay to Islamorada in the Keys. The water was so clear we could see the fish and grass and coral on the bottom. The highlight of the day was the dolphins swimming and seeing a small hammerhead shark near the boat. Thursday night a front came through, but we still had a nice ride crossing over from the Florida Bay to ocean side to get to Marathon mid-day on Friday.

Dolphins at Play

Biltmore Condo Hotel in West Palm Beach

Boot Key Harbor in Marathon    

PUNCHES in Bed for the Winter

I completed getting the boat winterized and now the cover is on. The whole process takes about 3 weeks. Everything with water such as tanks, engines, heads must be filled with antifreeze. We had great weather for the past two weeks and I was able to strip and refinish the rubrails on the boat. My bottom paint is not looking so great so in the spring Iwill have to decide if I want to strip the bottom all the way down.

Waiting to Cross the Bay

We are waiting for a weather window to cross the Chesapeake Bay to Crisfield, MD. Next week is the big annual Marine Trawler Owners Association rendezvous. We are expecting over 70 boats but the weather this week has been snotty. Winds and waves have been high and we hope Saturday will ( if the forecast is to be believed ) give us a decent crossing.