Splashed!

Astarte is back in the water on Friday morning and in a slip at Whangarei Marina (Town Basin) for about a week. It was a bit less than two months out of the water at Docklands 5 and lots and lots of work done to Astarte. We worked just about everyday, so we are knackered and looking forward to taking it easy for a few days. We still have to get the boat reorganized – getting tools and supplies re-stored and the dirt from the yard cleaned up. The boat is mighty dusty!

On Friday, we had a visit from a former colleague of Michael's. "Hoagy" and his partner Mary are in New Zealand for some exploring and they were nice enough to come by Whangarei. We enjoyed a few bottles of bubbly and wine and a nice dinner out. Michael and Hoagy caught up on the work gossip and we enjoyed their company. It is great to have visitors we are just sorry the timing was such that we couldn't take them for a sail.

So in order to share the pain of all the work we accomplished in the yard...here's the list.
Bottom paint scraped off by hand and sanded to the hull. Blisters ground out and dried and then re-glassed, faired, and sanded. Hull washed then waxed. Anchor dropped and chain cleaned. Anchor locker cleaned out. Thru-hull replaced. Prop removed and cleaned up with zirc fittings installed. Shaft and strut cleaned and polished. New zincs put everywhere. Inside sole (floor) removed and refinished (4 coats) and re-installed after major cleaning of floor areas. Salon table removed and refinished (5 coats) and re-installed. Hydraulic centerboard ram sanded and painted. Major stove cleaning. Four coats of two-pot barrier coat on bottom. Three coats of anti-foul/four coats at high impact spots. Greased centerboard pin. Checked all thru-hulls. Re-installed prop and treated prop/shaft/strut with "prop speed." Removed air conditioner unit from boat (haven't used in eight years)- giving us some additional storage and removing about 25 kilos of weight. Rebuilt wooden wall where AC was hidden. Installed new VHF radio (after testing many possible issues with the radio problem). Fixed water heater problem by replacing a hard to get at hose.

All this along with the day to day chores of living in a yard. That means climbing a ten-step ladder hundreds of times to get on and off the boat. Using the bathrooms on land and doing most of the cooking and dishes off the boat. Grocery and supply gathering was a few miles walk away...and we needed lots of supplies for all the projects so the walk back meant we were loaded down. Laundry still needed to get done.

Tired? We are!
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At 1/28/2017 7:04 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°44.37'S 174°20.32'E

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