First Haul Out

I plan to write up a full description but suffice it to say that we survived our first haul out experience (remember that all of our previous boats were on trailers).  Salish Aire weighed in at 60,000 lbs.  The guy we had contracted to do the bottom was caught a bit off guard by our underwater profile and ran out to get an additional gallon of paint as he kept muttering, "that's a really big boat!" . We took the keel cooler off ourselves and took it apart at C's parents where we had access to a wire brush wheel and were able to use their tractor bucket as a basin for a mild acid wash (the factory suggested dilute muriatic acid which worked wonders on the thick coat of calcium deposits for years of marine growth.  It went together with a new set of seals, new zincs, and some new bolts and looks great back in place.  The only problem was that when the stabilizer fin seals were removed the port side had what looked like 90 wt oil rather than grease behind it suggesting water intrusion.  The repair guy recommended about $5000 worth of parts and labor and only agreed to reassemble them with only new seals after I made it clear that I am mechanically inclined enough to understand the implications (worst case is probably seized bearings - I would not expect significant leakage).  We believe that since we plan primarily inland water use of the boat for the next couple of years that the stress on the bearings will be minimal while we take time to plan ahead for a proper repair.

We tried to be extra thrifty by 1) hauling during the off season which ended the week after we re-launched, 2) doing some of the work ourselves after work each day, and 3) staying in Clarice's parents' camper van in my employer's parking lot at night rather than paying for a hotel.

In any case we were very, very happy to get back in the water and sleeping in our own bed (the marina initially told us that we could not stay aboard while in the yard - later they changed their tune a bit but we were settled in the van by then).  Jarvis was also clearly ready to get back home after living in the van (he loves camping but this just didn't make him happy).

Prior to being hauled we had started changing our batter banks around - that in itself is another story.  Oh- and be sure to read the story titled "the drip" - a classic tale of a "simple" repair job on a boat.