More progress is done on the boat. I am so excited to see her coming back to life. The amount of work done was solid for the weekend and we couldn't be any happier with the progress.
Saturday, we had the kids and of course after a few hours, they were done for the day so we managed to only stay for a few hours and yet, we were able to install the new to us Magma grill to the back of Free Spirit. I took out the chimney from the fireplace and replaced it with the new solar fan for more ventilation. The kids worked on removing the teak from the cockpit. That is a huge project in itself and is taking way longer than I ever expected it to take. But I am happy to report that we are 2/3 done with that and I only have one section left. I finished off all of the sanding that was needed on the teak handrails and other rails that I could access with the hand sander. Both sides got 3 times sanding done with 60 grit, then 100 and finally a 220 fine sanding so it's all super smooth now and ready for cleaning and conditioning. Because I will need water to do the cleaning and wipe down of the conditioning before I varnish, I can't finish that because they will be painting the bottom of the boat. All of the below water thru hulls have been removed so I must say that Free Spirit is now a holy boat, bah -bah!
Sunday, we actually spent a full day at the yard. It was one of the highest of days. The barrier coat of paint was done on Saturday after we left so it was a nice surprise to come in on Sunday and see her change from Red to Yellow! And then she changed again during the day from a mellow Yellow to nice sexy black. I even got to try my hand at painting the hull just so I can say that I tried it. It's pretty easy but a lot of work. Because we are super short on time we are having someone else do the painting and the pre-water work and then we come in on the weekends to be warriors. We were able to unstick the cockpit floor so we can prep to have the engine installed. We were really worried about that it was going to be extremely difficult. Free Spirit was kind to us today and worked with us. I sanded down the plate that has our Coast Guard number so I can re-stain and paint. Andy got the fun task to remove the vinyl stickers from her old name so we can clean and prep for the new stickers that we have. Finally, we save the best part for last... Inspection of the water and fuel tanks. We only made it to open up one tank and we were very surprised to see that the tank was about 3/4 full of diesel. What a wonderful surprise and better yet, it's still that beautiful Red color with little to no water. No algae blooms or gunk that we were able to find in the tank. Andy went in armpit deep and still wasn't able to hit the bottom the tank. We decided that was more than enough work for the day and wanted to end on a high note (the other tank showed full??)
Sunday work completed - has some issues as it was breezy in the morning and the stickers didn't want to work with us much but after a while we got them on and they look great. We are happy to have her named correctly. I did more sanding on the interior for the kitchen back splash to remove some of the glue from Coast Guard number plate. We changed out the sacrificial anode plate. The other one was beyond ready for a change! We inspected the water tank and there was some water and muck and gunk so we will shop vac that out and add some bleach right before we sail so we can clean out the tank while moving and then shop vac and rinse that water tank out so we can fill with fresh water for us. Some exciting news.... the larger fuel tank... yep, you guessed it.... Full tank of diesel!! Hot Mama!! We hit the jackpot... almost 200 gallons of combined fuel in both tanks!! Defiantly a surprise!! I also cleaned up a bit in the salon and took out some trash and tried to start to put the kitchen back together (remember we had to take it apart a few weeks ago to access a thru hull). It literally looks like a tornado was inside and you couldn't move so once that was done... what do I do next??? Attempted to remove the fireplace, of course. I got the faceplates off without much issue. Thank goodness that wasn't glued down but they used 20 something screws that had to be dug out and then removed. Now I for the life of me can't figure out how to remove the fireplace. While I was busy messing around with the fireplace, Andy made a new panel for the engine instrument cluster so we are one step closer to getting the engine installed. It was 3PM and I was done for the day so I will tackle the fireplace on the next visit to attempt to remove. I am sure there are a ton of screws in there... Will have more on the next trip about that one.
