Haul Out: The Final Chapter

It feels like old news now, but I never got a chance to write about the remainder of our days on the hard.  There was a mishap when Ben glassed in the blisters.  The ratio of hardener was off, so we had to dig out the goo,  and then he re-sanded and refilled the blisters.  Not too big a deal.  It set us back a day, but luckily because of the Thanksgiving holiday we'd gotten 4 free laydays, so it was not a huge loss.  The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the Driscoll crew painted the bottom and we were ready to get back in the water on Wednesday.  Here are a couple videos of that process:





Then comes the big lesson.  It turns out Mother Culture was taking on water through the hole in which the transducer had been installed.  I had to go to school, so I bailed on Ben while he sat in the boat pumping out the bilge until they could haul him back out. 

About 4 hours later, they hauled him out again.  The mechanic took a look at Ben's craftsmanship and the only thing he lacked was 5200 marine adhesive/sealant.  (Truth be told, Ben never lacked that at all. We came to the boatyard equipped with and ready to use 5200, until a certain shall-we-say *big-wig* of the boatyard assured Ben he didn't need to use 5200 to seal the transducer.  So he only glassed it in with West Systems Epoxy.  Some of our hardest lessons are learned by trusting self-proclaimed experts.) Anyway, Ben knocked the transducer out, refabricated the mount and sealed it in with 5200.  The next day we were back in the water and dry as a bone, sailing home.  It was a long, tiring ordeal that now seems dwarfed by Monday's storm.  Here are a couple pics of the transducer (before and after) and the bottom of the boat:

Transducer *Before*

Transducer *After*

Mr. Jones inspecting the work

A couple pics of Mother Culture back on the ball

I still need to get a picture of the back, where we brought the paint right up to the bottom of the transom.