It might not have been roaring from the very first day, but it made up for any lag by this past weekend. In Poughkeepsie we didn't really get much wind. We did get rain. It nicely washed away most of what was left of the dirty snow piled up. Although the surrounding hills do still have a layer of frosting. Other places in the NE were not so lucky it seems. Most of the storm seemed to be mainly east and south of here. Parts of New Jersey, Westchester County NY, and of course the coastal regions got pretty slammed with lots of trees down and major power outages. I did not have any loss of power. The creek has been higher than normal, but not overflowing. The city came by before the storm and cleaned out a couple of trees that slow down the flow of Fallkill Creek. The river must have had exceptionally high tides as even above the sidewalk at Waryas there was flotsam and jetsam. Working the weekend, I missed seeing it though. It all made for great sleeping......
Today was Beautiful! It really felt like the first day of real spring; blue sky, warmer breezes, sun all day. I went to the marina/boatyard to see the boat and formulate a plan and my spring "to do" list. YES, I know some diehards already have their list half finished! I was enjoying winter and just didn't get around to mine. The boat was going to get launched next week, but after looking things over I decided to delay it. The boat bottom has so many layers of built up paint that it was beginning to peel off in spots. It rather looks like a moderately bad case of psoriasis. So, the bottom will get blasted with baking soda down to nice smooth gelcoat and then I can put a coat of bottom paint on it. I had an enlightening discussion with George (at the marine store) about bottom paint, and the pros and cons of getting it blasted. (the major con being, of course, Money!) For those of you not familiar with bottom paint, be now informed.
There are "hard" bottom paints, and "soft" bottom paints. Hard bottom paint stays on longer, sometimes will last two seasons even, and soft paint gradually wears off, definitely needing a new application each season. The soft paint is also called "ablative". The major purpose of bottom paint is to protect the boat bottom from critters.....things that attach to the bottom such as mussels and other mollusks, little crabs, other microscopic life, grass, algae like stuff, etc. especially in the tropics, although there are mussels and vegetative growth in cold northern waters that still necessitate bottom paint. I have always been a fan of hard paint. It seemed to work better for my purposes. I always lightly sanded every time before a new season's paint (or every other year), just to get a nicer cleaner surface. BUT, eventually, the coats add up, and now after 31 years of bottom paint (the boat was built in 1979), it is pretty thick. It will be exciting to see a nice clean bottom.
Twice now, after having boat conversations with George he has remarked that he sees that my boat is not just "a boat", but more a member of the family. Each time we talk he learns more about my boat; sailing the Bahamas in the summers, leaving the boat in the Bahamas for 3 years, and painting the bottom in Green Turtle, having it slide off the jack stands in Hurricane Francis in Ft. Pierce, coming up the waterway......and the fact that I have owned the same boat for 23 years now. George is a sailor, owns the marine store, is a yacht broker, and he and his wife have also sailed many miles, but I may be one of the few people he knows who has owned the
SAME boat for so many years. He remarked today that he can see that there are lots of memories that go with my boat. It started me thinking, and my remark back to him was that "YES, there are a lot of memories with it, but last fall I pretty much stripped the boat down below (mainly to clean and paint) and now am stripping the bottom. Time for some new memories!" The old ones (good and bad) will still remain in my heart and mind, but maybe sometimes I get bogged down by all the layers of memories. Time to strip the peeling layers off and have a clean fresh "bottom"/"boat"/"mind"......I seem to have such a hard time "letting go" of things, whether it be clothes, books, events, just things in general. Maybe this will be an inspiration and I can clean out the closets at home again, maybe even some of my storage unit! SO, this brings me around to how bottom paint is an analogy for life! Got that all you readers out there? ;)
Hopefully the next post I will have "before" and "after" photos of the bottom!
On a less philosophical note.....Mike is now in St. Martin. We had a too short visit weekend before last (a long weekend) while he was still in St. John. I flew in with a major sinus headache; it rained almost the entire time; Mike had a very close call with getting major lacerations when the dinghy flipped trying to do a beach landing at Maho Bay in an effort to get the propane tank refilled so we could make dinner. BUT, we did get several things done on the boat to prepare for his St. Martin time. And we had a wonderful dinner with close friends who I dearly miss and are like family.
Hopefully March will go out like a lamb, and April won't have too many showers; just enough for the flowers.
