We arrive fairly early but probably later than usual to SIMS. The great team here has already moved the jack stands so we can finish the bottom where they covered the hull. Amazing the difference from what it was to what it is now.

Still can’t reach Al about the starter but keep trying.

The riggers show up to finish the forestay and backstay and of course, point to a broken strand on the inner shroud. I complain again that this is why we wanted them to see the boat back in August/September, to make sure everything was OK. “Oh no, I was just told to check the forestay and backstay”. Yeah, that’s why we arranged for George to pick you up in his boat, take you out there, wait for you just so you could look at those two things. Oh well.

Thankfully while up the mast they run our new foresail halyard (a mere CAD$1000) so we don’t have to dick with it. Damien ran a pulling line but good for them to do it while up the mast.

Christy does most of the sanding on the jack stand spots, I touch them up after. Then she paints them – one last, mercifully short, time in the Michelin Man suit.

Early in the morning I started flushing the fresh water system. While Christy paints I finish that job. I added about 250 mL of bleach to each tank, then filled them both up to the top with marina water. Let them sit for a bit and ran water through all the sinks and showers inside to make sure there was nothing in those lines. Then I drained both tanks – takes quite a while by just running the kitchen faucet – and refilled them adding the Aqua fresh stuff and filtering the marina water through our hose-plug-in adapters. Afterwards the water seems very clear, clean and tastes good too. Worth the effort.

This job takes a lot of the day but not a lot of effort, just open a tap here and there, move the hose around, watch for tanks empty or overflowing. Interestingly, the water pump shuts off a few times from overheating, but always starts again after a half-hour cooling.

While I’m doing this, Christy takes the bus down to Island Water World to try and find us a prop anode. Ours is almost completely disintegrated, miraculously still hanging on. Budget doesn’t have the right size. While there, she meets our old friend Jillian from the Community church. Unlikely we will get there these Sundays, too much to do.

Later I put the prop anti-foul on, it is a spray paint job and looks good. Christy found out you’re not supposed to put hull anti-foul paint on the prop. Who knew? It looks good tho with the grey prop anti-foul and much sleeker that with this awful paint.

She comes back a few hours later and paints the blank spots. One more coat for them tomorrow morning and we are very low on paint.

We’re both busted up most nights back at the apartment. Hard to describe the relief every afternoon as we enter the air con and have a shower.

Tonight we go through the list of things remaining to do before launch tomorrow.