After checking all systems (to be sure all hoses were attached and boat wouldn't sink) Stargazer is off with her new bottom, shiny topsides, leaving Point Roberts and heading back to Semiahmoo!

Down she goes, back to where she belongs, Robert did a fabulous job! He has only been doing this job for about 3 weeks but we felt completely comfortable with him. He looks like he has been doing this job for a while. Very courteous young man ... age 19!

We watch as Stargazer is positioned to be lowered. Robert is very skilled at this job!
Down she goes!

New bottom, Robert picks up Stargazer for her return to sea. Slowly he carries her back to the haul out station.

We rolled the paint on the bottom, Gene paints underneath the keel, Gene in the engine "room" although there is not a lot of room there. Dave is helping by handing tools. When Gene's back would get tired, then Dave would get in there. They swapped back & forth all day long.
They are a great team!

The boat yard power washes the bottom saving us lots of time!
They set Stargazer in place with stands and give us a ladder so we can get on our boat!

Position slings and up, up and away to dry land she goes!

Boat Haul Out @ Point Roberts

For 5 days we hauled out and lived on the "hard" while painting the bottom, having the prop coated with some new prop coat system that prevents growth, getting an insurance survey and engine work. Living on a boat is sure harder this way. 1/ Climbing a ladder that was 15 feet up 2/ Not being able to allow greywater to go down the drain a.k.a. water catching (it would dump on the ground cloth) ... not being able to use the toilet much (no way to pump out holding tank if it filled up) ... these were the most difficult aspect about living on the "hard."

We painted the bottom 3 times ... Gene wanted to pull the prop shaft and put in a drip-less shaft seal. Well as boat work goes ... nothing is ever simple and takes 3 times longer than planned. After spending a half day trying to remove the prop shaft, it was determined that our engine 4-108 Perkins that weighs 750 pounds needed to be lifted up to remove the prop shaft. After securing a chain fall, the engine was lifted high enough inside the cockpit for Gene to realize that the engine has to be completely removed from boat in order to remove the prop shaft. The boat yard did not have the means to do this for us (because we have a ketch rig and needed to drop our mizzen mast) and thus the prop shaft project had to be abandoned because of time and cost. Gene decided to spend this time chasing down oil leaks since the engine and all hoses were disassembled. So the next day was spent putting the engine back in.

We have a clean bottom & prop, an engine with virtually no oils leaks for the time and a washed and waxed boat. We are good to go for about 6 years with our bottom (2 years per coat of bottom paint) and 10 years on our boat insurance survey!