Progress

Marathon, Florida
No LL

We're making good progress on the honey-do list. Very soon, perhaps in one week, we'll be shipshape again on boat maintenance projects and ready to depart for the Bahamas when the next weather window opens. The only trouble is that the nice weather returned and the beach and the reef beckon us to go play instead of work.

The only exception to progress is a job that I have been ducking for months. That is using paint stripper to remove the old deck paint so that I can put new paint down. I hate working with that stuff.

I'm beginning to wonder if we need a new barrier coat of paint on the hull. A barrier coat lasts for about 10 years, and Tarwathie's coat is 7 years old. When it is worn out, the hull begins to absorb water and the weight of the boat can increase several tons. Libby and I aren't prepared to re-do the barrier coat. It requires that the boat sit up on the hard for months or more to dry out. We don't have any place to live on land for 6 months.

It's wonderful cruising around popular places like Marathon. Yesterday we encountered one couple that we first met on the Oswego River in New York two years ago. Then we encountered another couple who's house we visited for the SSCA Gam in Islesboro Maine last summer. The cruiser's world really is a small world.