Today we enjoyed the visit from my cousin Armand and his wife Betty. Betty was a bit afraid of motion sickness aboard Lucy III so I had her take the helm for 99% of the trip over to Kingsland Bay. She was fine and enjoyed our first trip of the season.
June 8, 2022
Ponte Bay Marina, Lake Champlain, Charlotte, Vermont
Marc- These last several weeks have been spent doing delayed maintenance. I started out with replacing the cutlass bearing, stainless steel driveshaft and repacking the stuffing box. If only it were so simple. Fixing one issue brought other issues to light such as the engine drive coupling about to fail and engine misalignment. I also replaced the weed cutter on the driveshaft as well as did the annual fiberglass repair of the hollow rear section of the keel behind the centerboard. The overzealous yard staff always blocks the back end of the keel causing cracks in an area not built to be weight bearing. So much for the easy jobs. The big task was repainting the topsides with 2-part epoxy paint five times. After much sanding and some fairing I applied 3 coats of Alexseal primer (sanding between coats) and two coats of high gloss Alexseal topcoat. This was entirely done with a roller with remarkable results. Alexseal's special paint additives flatten the finish, prevent runs and sags, then eliminate air bubbles. There were a few insects to deal with since I did this outside.
Launching date is tomorrow, June 9th.
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June 9, 2022
Mooring, Ponte Bay Marina, Lake Champlain, Charlotte, Vermont
-Marc: The boat floats really well and all systems are working fine. One little issue when I opened up the raw water cooling seacock and found that the taw water strainer leaked. This was a quick fix and only required a reseating of the top cap. A few sights along the waterfront are below:
