It was a peaceful night at dock, except that the bilge pumps for the extremely large ex-military vessel on the next dock kept cycling all night.
One high point of the experience was, we saw several manatees this morning. Apparently, they hang around in the shallows surrounding the boat yard at night, and they become active early in the morning... about the time we normally get up..
Around 8:30 AM, we called Ruben, because we hadn't yet set up to prepare meals on board, and we were hungry. He told us that he was ready to haul out, and that as soon as he could get there to pilot the boat into the haulout bay, we could go on out to find some breakfast.
That's exactly what happened, and when we returned, the boat was out of the water, hanging in the travellift, and Ruben himself was working at removing the rudder. It had to come off in order for the prop shaft to be removed.
After the rudder came off, the prop and shaft were fairly quickly drawn out. Ruben had already disengaged the parts inside the engine room. Very quickly thereafter, the boat was parked in the yard and blocked up. Once the prop and shaft were free of the boat, Ruben took the necessary measurements and ordered the replacement parts, asking for overnight delivery.
I had also ordered new bottom paint, since the existing paint was showing significant wear, so George, the paint man, got on the job right away.
While the boat was high and dry, I decided to have the transom lettering taken care of. At Ruben's recommendation I called Dave Winkler of Boat Graphics & Stripes, Inc., who came out within the hour to take the necessary measurements. While there, he went ahead and removed the old lettering, and told us we'd have to have the area buffed, in order to (a) fair away the differences between the oxidized surfaces, and those that had been protected by the old lettering, and (b) provide adequate adhesion for the new lettering. An hour or so of work by Steve, one of Ruben's yard workers, took care of that.
Now we wait. Again.
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